Slytherin United we Stand
by Lillian Jess Snape
Summary: Tacita Riddle is a 11 year old girl. She is the daughter of Voldemort but has no idea who either of her parents are until she gets a letter for Hogwarts. This one letter changes her life forever.
1. Prologue

* * *

**United We Stand**

**Prologue**

This is a tale of a house, a house in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a house shunned by others, hated and resented. Alone, they turn to the only house that will accept them, their own.

This is the tale of how they became the greatest house of all four in the school.

I suppose our story starts a long time ago with the four founders of the school Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Each founder created a house; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

Salazar wanted to make the school great; he wanted only those who possessed true magical ability to be allowed to enter the school. This is what he truly wanted, the tale was twisted by the other three who would not listen to Salazar's wise words. They claimed that he only wanted pure bloods to enter the school. He was shunned, hated and resented. To hide from his colleagues he built a chamber in the school, a chamber the others knew nothing about.

One night Godric challenged Salazar to a duel. When Salazar accepted they fought to the death. Godric Gryffindor was killed. Salazar's stupefy made his colleague land on a piece of shattered glass that pierced his heart killing him instantly.

Rowena and Helga who had not been preset had entered the room to find Godric dead on the floor with Salazar still standing holding his ebony wand in his left hand, his wand hand. They thought it was murder and would not listen to Salazar's explanation. They forced him to leave.

Salazar left the castle never to return. But before he did he went to his chamber, he sealed it and uttered one last curse

"_Other houses of the castle beware, for many years my heir shall not return. When my heir sets foot here, again my chamber shall be opened and my beast shall be released. Death shall end all, until another braver than Gryffindor slays my beast. My heir shall bring terror to all who hear his name until my heir who shares my hand, walks and breaths. They shall bring Slytherin back to greatness." _

In the curse he left a final tribute to Godric, as he did not wish to kill him even if he hated him more than anything.


	2. Chapter 1 Voldemort

**Chapter 1 - Voldemort**

One hundred years later Salazar's heir returned to Hogwarts, and as the curse stated he opened the secret chamber of his ancestor, releasing the beast that lay within.

His name was Tom, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He had grown up in a muggle orphanage and had known nothing about magic before he was eleven. He located the chamber in his seventh year at the school. He released the beast of Salazar Slytherin. Someone was killed; a Ravenclaw girl and Salazar's heir resealed the chamber to be reopened at a later date.

Tom hated all muggles and believed what Godric, Rowena and Helga said that Salazar believed. When he has left Hogwarts he became Lord Voldemort, all with magical ability feared his name.

He wanted immortality above all else and made many steps to trying to gain it. He killed any who stood in his path not caring about the consequences.

Many knew of his killing and torturing but few knew of his greatest secret. He had a child; this child was born to a pure blood witch. She had loved him and they were at Hogwarts together. In a way, perhaps he loved her too.

She became his most devoted follower. She did not truly believe what he did, but she loved him too much to admit that. She became pregnant. When Voldemort found out he flew into a fit of rage calling her a liar and torturing her, she ran.

On the third day of August she gave birth, in a dark deserted alleyway. The child was a girl, She removed a letter that she had written previously and wrote on it

_The child's name shall be__,_ she paused contemplating then wrote_Tacita Alice Riddle._

She then took her newborn child wrapped in a blanket and put her on the doorstep of a muggle family, She hoped that they would take care of her, she placed the letter is the bundle before turning to leave. Later that night she died alone, in the same alleyway she gave birth in.


	3. Chapter 2 The Letter

**Chapter 2 – The Letter**

Tacita wandered in between the trees. She loved it here, away from the suffocating atmosphere of her home. When she could get away she would always come here, to Clayton Wood. It was large enough not to be found in. This is where she felt truly at home, she knew every tree, every hiding place and many of the creatures that dwelled there.

Tacita loved the creatures in the woods; she found that he could relate to them more than people. She especially liked the snakes, from the age of five she had known she wasn't like other people.

She had always known that her family wasn't her real family, they made that clear, but when her step brother Dan had got a pet snake called Harold she had found that she could communicate with it. Every hiss it made she understood and she could reply, as if it were her own language. They always wondered why she spent more time with the snake than talking to them.

That was another thing that set her apart; she didn't like talking to people. She had been three when they first heard her utter a word and they were very surprised when directly after that she said a full sentence. In actual fact she had been talking since she was two, but they didn't know that.

That wasn't the only thing that set her apart from other people. Three years ago, when she was eight, she found that if she concentrated she could make things happen. She had made four glasses disappear once.

She had long black hair and was small for her age. She had dark brown eyes that could strike fear in anyone's hearts when she was angry.

She sighed, checking her watch.

'_Quarter past eleven better get back.'_ she thought.

She turned from her currant route and continued right into the wood, she found the path in five minutes. She followed it out of the woods then walked back.

When she got back only her stepbrother was there.

"Where've you been kid?" he asked when she entered

"Out." She replied simply

"That's not a proper answer,' he stated ' where've you been?"

Tacita sighed, Dan was five years older than her and didn't let her forget it.

"You tell me or I'll tell Dad you were out alone again." He said, his blue eyes glistening, knowing he had won

She gulped, whenever her 'Dad' found out she was out alone it was always bad for her. He never did anything bad, the worst he would do was make sure she didn't get any dinner. She decided to lie

"Town." She stated, she was always a good liar. He nodded believing her.

She turned to leave but Dan stopped her.

"Where you going?" he asked

"Upstairs." She replied truthfully.

"Well stay here a min." he ordered.

"Why?" she asked irritably, she didn't like being ordered about and it annoyed her.

"You got mail." He handed her a letter.

"What?" she gasped, taking the letter from him.

"You heard me," he sighed, "Now open it, kid."

She hesitated, looking at the letter. It had a picture of a snake, lion, badger and raven on it with a big H in the middle. The envelope wasn't made from paper either, it was made of parchment. She slowly opened it and pulled out two pieces of parchment. She read the letter

_Dear Miss Riddle _

_I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. _

_This is a school that educates young witches and wizards in the art of magic. Please reply by owl, an owl will be sent next week please give your reply to it. _

_Enclosed is a list of School supplies that you will need. If you decide to attend Hogwarts, which I hope you will, you can obtain them from Diagon Alley, which can be accessed from the Leaky Cauldron in London. Term starts on the 1__st__ of September, Please be on platform 93/4 by 10:0._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall _

_Deputy Headmistress_

She read the letter a few times before the words sunk in.

"What is it?" Dan asked seeing the astonished expression on her face. Before she could reply her 'Dad' walked in.


	4. Chapter 3 Confusion

**Chapter 3 – Confusion **

"Hello Dan, Tacita." he greeted them.

"Hey Dad," Replied Dan "Tacita's got mail."

"Has she now?" Tacita looked up from her letter

"Yeah." She told him

"Who's it from?"

"Hogwarts." She replied. Her 'Dad' froze

"H…Hogwarts?"

"Yeah."

"Dan stay here," He turned to her "Follow me." He turned and left the room; confused she followed, taking the letter with her.

He went upstairs and into his room.

"Dad, what is it?" He didn't reply, he just opened a draw and took a letter from it.

' Here,' He whispered "Read this."

"Who's it from?" he hesitated before relying

"Your Mother."

"What?"

"Just read it."

She gulped, she was so confused. All she wanted to do was run back to her wood where it was safe and familiar.

Trembling she opened the letter, which was also made of parchment.

_Dear Tacita_

_I am so sorry, I had to leave you, I had no choice. I know you may never forgive me but you must know. _

_If you are reading this it means that you are eleven and have received your letter to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's true; you are a witch._

_Enclosed is the key to my vault at Gringotts. This is the wizard bank. It is in Diagon Alley. The vault number is 374. You should find all the money that you need there._

_Please, remember that I will always love you, even if I can't be there for you. _

_Love_

_Your Mother _

_Alison Jane Baker_

"Baker?" she asked

"What?"

"My mothers name was Baker,' she told him ' but my name is Riddle."

"Perhaps she named you from your father, that is the name we were told to give you."

"I want to go to Hogwarts." She stated. He just nodded.

She tipped the envelope and a small silver key slid out into her palm.

The next week, as the letter said an owl arrived with a letter for Tacita clasped in its beak. She took it and read it quickly

_Dear Miss Riddle_

_Please give your reply to the owl._

_Enclosed is a map of how to get to Diagon Alley for your school supplies._

_Yours Sincerely_

_Minerva McGonagall _

_Deputy Headmistress_

She quickly wrote her reply, stating that she would attend Hogwarts and handed it to the owl. The owl surprised her by snatching the letter from her hand and flying off.

Later that day her 'Dad' took her to Diagon Alley.


	5. Chapter 4 Snake Blood

**Chapter 4 – Snake Blood**

Dan had been informed of her being a witch and had refused to come to Diagon Alley with them. He had called Tacita a demon child and refused to talk to her, except to insult her. He had retreated to his room with his snake. Tacita didn't really mind, she liked the quiet.

"Here we are," her 'Dad' stated "The Leaky Cauldron."

He and Tacita had just entered the bustling pub.

" Err, maybe you should go to Diagon Alley on your own.' He said looking longingly at the bar. Tacita laughed inwardly

' Don't get too drunk Dad.' She giggled, her 'Dad' wasn't an alcoholic but he did like to get drunk once in a while, he would go to the pub usually once a month and when he returned sleep for the next day on the sofa. She didn't mind that, he wasn't really a dad to her, she saw him more like an uncle, but he liked it when she called him Dad.

She walked to the bar with him though, so she could ask the barman how to get into Diagon Alley.

"Excuse me, but how do I get to Diagon Alley?" she asked politely. The barman was happy to help her and showed her how to get in. She jumped when the brick wall opened.

" Muggle born eh?" the barman chuckled " that's nothing compared to Hogwarts. Anything else?" Tacita thought for a moment then asked

" Where's Gringotts?" The barman smiled and point to the big building right in front

" Right ahead, the big building, you can't miss it"

She thanked him and walked towards it.

When she entered Gringotts she was surprised again by the Goblins. She stood in one corner and watched the other people walk up to them. She heard the person closest to her say a vault number and hand the goblin a key. She took a deep breath and begun to walk towards a free goblin.

She stopped halfway as she noticed a gigantic person enter; he had a huge, scruffy beard. In his shadow was a boy about her age; he had round glasses and untidy, jet-black hair. They walked toward the goblin that she was about to go to. They got there before her but at that moment the goblin next to him became free. Putting the Huge man out of her mind she approached it.

" Erm, excuse me but can I access vault three hundred and seventy-four please?" The Goblin looked at her as if she was crazy.

"The Baker vault?" he asked, his voice dangerous " and have you got a key?" He smirked, clearly expecting her not to have one.

" Yes." She replied. The goblin looked taken aback as she removed the small silver key from her pocket.

" You'll need more than that to get into that particular vault." he stated

" W…what would that be?" she stuttered, now unsure of herself.

" Baker blood." The goblin replied as if that were the most obvious thing.

" Well, my mother's name was Alison Jane Baker."

" Someone's done there research, I'll take you down there but I'm not reasonable for any injury you may sustain" He turned and led her toward some stairs going underground.

Tacita gulped, she was starting to get nervous but she didn't want to back down, there was something about the goblin that made her want to prove herself. The goblin led her to a mine cart and got in

" Get in then," He told her, she did. Without warning the cart zoomed forward. She wanted to scream but she didn't. The cart stopped abruptly

" Vault number three hundred and seventy-four." said the goblin mockingly. Tacita got out of the cart and walked towards an iron door. The goblin opened the door with the silver key but behind it was another iron door. He gestured towards it.

" What do I do?" she asked, something told her that whatever it was she wouldn't like it.

"Just put your hand on that indented circle," sneered the goblin " Miss _Baker_." She did not bother correcting him of her name.

She put her hand on the circle and gasped as a sharp pain shot up her arm. She jerked her arm away and looked at the circle her blood trickled down it. The blood moved into the form of a snake and hissed

" You may enter." She stood there shocked for a moment before looking at her hand. There was blood on it but no visible injury.

" W…well I've never seen anything like that before," stammered the goblin "go in then." Tacita pushed the door, it swung open.

She gasped inside were huge piles of gold, silver and bronze.

" I…is this wizard money?" she asked the goblin, knowing she would get a mocking reply.

" Yeah, the gold coins are Galleons, the Silver are Sickles and the bronze ones are Knuts," replied the goblin helpfully " there are seventeen Sickles to Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle."

"Thanks" Tacita replied trying to remember everything. She took out two hundred Galleons, four hundred Sickles and fifty Knuts, not wanting to have to go back too soon, her hand still tingled slightly. She filled the small bag that she had found by the door. It was green with a silver snake on it, she liked it.

The goblin locked her vault and took her back too the surface. The goblin returned her key; she was about to leave when the goblin asked her

"Did you hear the hiss?" This confused her

" What hiss?"

" The blood snake," the goblin said irritably " Did you hear it hiss?"

" Oh, yes," she hesitated wondering whether to tell the goblin she had understood it before continuing " It said 'You may enter.'" The goblins eyes widened

" Then you really do have," he stopped hesitated then said, "snake blood." He scurried back to his post, leaving Tacita standing there more confused than ever. She shook her head and left.


	6. Chapter 5 Shopping

**Chapter 5 - Shopping**

When out in the street she got out her list, she decided to get her books first as she was right outside a bookshop. The shop was called Flourish and Blotts, it was am amazing, Tacita loved books. She bought the books that were on her list and then begun browsing. She bought a few books for extra reading as well, they where called:

101 Curses and Counter Curses

Hogwarts: A History

5000 Potions of every level

After buying her books she went to get her robes. She entered a shop called Madam Malkins. There were two boys in there, one blond boy and the black haired boy from earlier. She decided to avoid them and waited in a corner for both of them to leave. The black haired boy left first then later the blond haired one. She got her robes fitted and left.

She checked her list again. She decided to go to the apothecary's. She bought what she needed from there and proceeded to buy a silver telescope.

The only thing left on her list was her wand. _'Where am I going to get that?' _she wondered looking around. She spotted a narrow, shabby shop. The gold letters above the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. She entered it; a bell went off as she entered. _'No chance of hiding and watching what happens now' _she thought.

An old man approached her. He was slightly creepy

" I am Mr Ollivander," he whispered " Hogwarts?" Tacita nodded.

"Which is your wand arm?" he asked

" Erm, I'm left handed if that's what you mean" Tacita just wanted to get her wand and leave. Mr Ollivander nodded and measured her arm. Then he disappeared into the depths of the shop.

He came back with a few wand boxes. HE handed her a wand from the first box.

" Try this one," he told her " holly and unicorn hair, eight inches." She waved it, noting happened.

"No," He said suddenly, snatching the wand away from her, he handed her another " Beech and dragon heartstring, ten inches."

She waved it, this time the chair in the corner exploded.

"No, no, no," Ollivander snatched the wand out of her hand " Right core; but wrong wood." He stated. He handed her anther wand

"Ebony and Dragon heartstring, eleven and a half inches." As she touched it she felt a sudden surge of warmth, she waved it and green and silver sparks erupted from it.

"Interesting," muttered Mr Ollivander " very interesting."

" What?" asked Tacita, wondering what could be so interesting.

"That wand is rumoured to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin himself."

Now Tacita was confused, she had no idea who Salazar Slytherin was but she shrugged not wanted to show her ignorance of the wizarding world.

" Strange, that you should be destined for the wand of the founder of Slytherin house," he muttered "that will be seven Galleons." She paid and left.

She checked her list once more to make sure she had everything. She spotted a pet shop over the street, remembering that on the list it said that she could have an owl, cat or toad she went to have a look.

Inside was amazing; she spotted some snakes in a far corner and went to have a look. The snakes were beautiful; she wished she could have one.

"Like snakes, do you?" she gasped and turned around quickly a pet shop assistant stood there. He had short light brown hair and a friendly grin, " I'd watch him though, he's been grumpy lately, dunno why."

She looked at the snake that she had been about to stroke, he was a dull green colour and had milky eyes.

" That might be because he's gonna shed his skin." She said trying to be helpful. The grin on the assistants face faltered

"How do you know that?"

" His eyes," she replied simply, this was something she knew about, she had thousands of books on snakes at home " they're milky." The assistant looked doubtful

" When snakes are going to shed their skin their eyes become milky and they usually get grumpy." she added.

" Well, I see you know your stuff when it comes to snakes eh," he grinned again " You going to Hogwarts?" She nodded.

" I think I would like an owl or a cat," she stated thoughtfully "but I don't know which." The assistant brightened up at this

" Well, we got loads of owls and cats."

Another few minutes passed while she listened to the assistant go over the ups and downs of both owls and cats. She soon decided to get an owl. He led her to the owls. There where lots of different kinds.

" So, what kind of owl you looking for?"

" I don't know," she thought for a moment " one that can carry heavy items long distances." She decided.

" Oh, well we only got one owl that could do that," said the assistant his face dropping "but he's a bit…" he cut off.

" Can I see him?" Tacita asked, now curious.

"Sure."

He led her to the back of the shop where a large black owl stood in a cage he had large amber eyes that looked somehow that he would seriously injure anyone that came near him.

"He's beautiful." Tacita gasped. She walked forwards and stuck her finger through the bars and stroked its head.

" Wow," the assistant exclaimed " I guess you got a way with animals, you're the first that that owl ain't bitten." She smiled

" How much?"

" 15 Galleons," he hesitated then continues " but since he likes you and we're not gonna sell him otherwise 10 Galleons for you." She thanked the assistant, paid and left with her new owl.


	7. Chapter 6 Hogwarts Express

**Chapter 6 – Hogwarts Express**

When she walked back to the Leaky Cauldron she was pleased to see that her 'Dad' wasn't drunk.

"Hey Tacita," he greeted her, then he saw the owl " What is that?"

"It's an owl Dad," she replied then added quickly " so I can send you letters from Hogwarts." She didn't want him getting angry with her for buying a pet and not consulting him first.

"Well, I suppose that's ok," he sighed " Dan got a pet at about your age, but it's your responsibility understand?"

Tacita grinned

" Thanks Dad!" she exclaimed, she surprised him by hugging him tightly.

He bought her a butterbeer and they sat talking for a while. Well, he talked and she mostly listened. The butterbeer was delicious, almost better that coke but not quite.

" So Tacita, what you named the owl?" he asked suddenly."

" I haven't named him yet." She replied

" Hmm," her 'Dad' thought for a minute " how about Trevor?"

" No," she said simply " I was thinking; Shadow." She smiled; she liked that name, the owl hooted in agreement.

The first of September soon came; Tacita was very excited about going to Hogwarts.

"Dan, come on," Tacita shouted back to Dan, who was taking her to the station, "we're gonna be late." Dan looked at his watch

" No, we ain't kiddo," he answered waling a bit behind her, he showed her his watch " it's only early yet. "

Her 'Dad' couldn't come to see her off as he had work, at first Tacita was disappointed about this but when Dan had decided to be normal around her again she didn't complain.

" So where is this platform nine and three quarters?" Dan asked looking around.

" I don't know." Tacita admitted.

" Well, you find it then," Dan said as he turned to leave " I got to go, send me a letter when you get there, kid." He smiled and left. Tacita gulped, now what was she meant to do? She decided to look around, ignoring the sense of loneliness she now felt.

She spotted a group of red heads ahead of her. They had heavy trunks and an owl. She walked toward them and stopped, she saw the black haired boy from Diagon Alley approach them too. She watched the eldest boy of the group walk toward the barrier and disappear. This confused her, where did he go? She decided to go closer.

She got close enough to hear what the woman was saying. She watched as the black haired boy asked her how to get on to the platform and listened to the reply. _'So you just walk toward the barrier and then you go through'_ she realised. When the woman had gone through with the girl she followed.

When she walked straight through the wall she was astonished by the place before her. There were cats everywhere and owls hooting. Not only that but there were lots of people gathered on the platform. She checked her watch, it was five to eleven, she had five minutes to get on the train.

She made sure she still had her trunk and Shadow before making her way towards the large red steam train in front of her. The compartments at the front of the train were all filled up so she made her way to the back of the train. The last compartment was empty except for the black haired boy. She took a deep breath hesitating before approaching him, she hated talking to people she didn't know.

" Excuse me, but is it alright if I sit here?" she asked as politely as she could.

" Yeah, go ahead." he replied, he helped her pull her trunk in the compartment

" Thanks," she said, she looked at the snowy owl on top of the other trunk " nice owl."

" Thanks, her names Hedwig. Is that your owl?" he indicated to the black owl that was now hooting at Hedwig.

" Yeah, his name's Shadow," she smiled at him, thinking he seemed alright " my names Tacita Riddle, by the way."

She held out her hand, which he took

" Harry Potter." He introduced himself. She smiled again, sitting down.

A red haired boy entered the compartment.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing to the seat next to Harry " everywhere else is full." Tacita and Harry shook their heads and the boy sat down.

" I'm Ron Weasley." He stated

" Tacita Riddle."

" Harry Potter." Ron's eyes widened.

"So its true then?" he whispered in awe "have you got the – you know." Harry showed him a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Tacita, who had no idea what was so special about it, looked out the window. The train had started now and houses were speeding past the window. She felt a tingle of excitement at the thought of learning magic.

As Harry and Ron talked, she got out '5000 Potions of every level.' She had read all her new books cover except this one; she was about halfway through this one. It was her favourite, she found it fascinating.

A round-faced boy entered, he looked tearful

"Have you seen my toad?" he asked when they shook their heads he sniffed.

" He'll turn up." Harry said the round-faced boy nodded and left. Ron told them that if he had a toad he would have lost it a quick as possible. He then showed them a grey rat named Scabbers, Ron didn't like Scabbers as he thought he was useless.

After a while a women with a trolley put her head through the boor

"Anything from the trolley?" she asked.

" I brought sandwiches." Ron told her. Tacita looked up from her book and shook her head. Harry on the other hand bought some of everything.

"Hungry are you?" Ron asked, Tacita stifled a giggle.

" Starving," Harry stated " you can have some if you want."

The threesome had fun exchanging chocolate frog cards and eating Bertie Bott's every flavour beans. A girl with frizzy hair entered.

"Have you seen a Toad?" They shook their heads and she proceeded to introduce herself. Her name was Hermione Granger.

"Are you doing magic?" she asked Ron who was about to try to do a spell to turn his rat Scabbers yellow " lets see then."

When Ron tried the spell nothing happened.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" she asked, she then told them about all the spells she had tried and all the books she had read. When she found out who Harry was she told him about all the books he was in. When she finally left Tacita shook her head, she didn't like the smug way Hermione had told them about the magic she had tried.

The door slid open and the blond boy from Diagon alley walked in with to troll like boys. Tacita looked up from her book. One of the troll boys reached out and grabbed a chocolate frog from the pile, and then he screamed. Tacita saw Ron's rat attached to his finger. Harry, Ron and Tacita laughed.

The boy flung the rat on the floor and the three boys fled the compartment.

" I guess you rats not as useless as you thought he was." Tacita stated. Ron smiled slightly and picked it up by the tail

"I guess not, I think he's been knocked out" Ron looked closer " no, I don't believe it, he's gone back to sleep."

Harry and Tacita laughed.

Ron and Harry changed into their Hogwarts robes when Tacita went to the toilet. They waited outside the compartment when she changed into hers as she kicked them out. Ron and Harry were talking whist Tacita had gone back to reading.

A voice rung out from somewhere

" We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes, please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to Hogwarts separately."


	8. Chapter 7 The Sorting

**Chapter 7 - The Sorting**

The threesome got out onto a dark platform. A giant called the first years over. He then took them a lake and on a cliff there was a gigantic castle. It was amazing; Tacita was in a boat with Harry, Ron and Hermione as they crossed the lake on their way the to castle which was Hogwarts.

Tacita had never been to a castle before so she was slightly apprehensive when the giant knocked on the front door. The door swung open at once and a tall woman wearing emerald green robes. The giant left and the woman led them to small room.

She faced them and begun to talk

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said " I am Professor McGonagall the deputy headmistress." She paused and glanced around at them. Tacita instantly knew not to cross her.

" The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting Ceremony is very important because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you." With that she left the room. Harry and Ron begun to talk about how they would be sorted. Tacita ignored them and thought. She had read in Hogwarts: A History that each house had its own animal as a symbol, Gryffindor a lion, Ravenclaw a raven, Hufflepuff a badger and Slytherin a snake. She thought that if she had to choose from that she would probably choose Slytherin or Gryffindor.

Professor McGonagall returned and told them to form a line. Tacita got into the line behind Ron and walked out into the Great Hall. There were five tables, one for each house and then one for the teachers Tacita guessed as she looked around her. In front of the teachers table was a stool with an old hat on it. Tacita jumped when suddenly it started to sing

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

The daring, nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw

If you've a ready mind

Where those of wit and learning

Will always find their kind

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

The whole Hall burst into applause when the song was finished. Professor McGonagall told them to come and put the hat on their head when their name was called. She read the names from a list.

Harry and Hermione were sorted into Gryffindor and the blond boy whose name was Draco Malfoy and his thugs whose names were Crabbe and Goyle were sorted into Slytherin. It was soon her turn

"Riddle, Tacita." McGonagall called.

Tacita noticed that one on the teachers on the table flinched at the moment her name was called. He had caught her eye because of his ridicules purple turban, he now looked terrified. She walked up to the hat and slipped it onto her head, it slid over her eyes.

"Hmm," said a quiet voice " you're a hard one."

Tacita suppressed a gasp, even though she had heard the hat sing she still wasn't expecting it to speak to her.

" Your brave like a Gryffindor, Loyal as a Hufflepuff, clever as a Ravenclaw and cunning as a Slytherin." The hat stated.

Tacita gulped and accidentally thought of when she said goodbye to Dan's snake. She remembered how the snake had told her that she would be fine in her new school. " You'll be like a little snake catching big prey and growing big to eat it, you shed your skin a leaving shiny new skin where crumbly old skin was." Were its exact words they meant that she may find the school big and scary but she will grow bigger and then she will show her true colours, she smiled Harold always made her feel better about everything.

" A parselmouth too eh?" The hat whispered, "I think you would do well in SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted the last word so all could hear. She removed the hat and placed it on the stool before walking to the table that was cheering. She sat on the end of the table closest to the teachers' table, as it was furthest away from Malfoy. She hoped that Ron would become a Slytherin but he didn't, he became a Gryffindor.

As the last person was sorted Professor McGonagall rolled up the list and took the sorting hat away. A man with a white beard who was sitting on a large gold chair at the centre of the table stood up and beamed at the students.

"Welcome!" he said, " Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" With that he sat down. Tacita clapped with the rest of the hall and looked at the table. She gasped, the plates in front of her were now piled high with food. She piled her plate high with food and begun to eat.

After her first plateful of food Tacita was full, she had never been a very big eater, which was why she saw so small and skinny. She looked up at the staff table. She thought she saw the teacher with a turban look down quickly, as if he had been watching her. She gulped; the turbaned teacher made her feel uneasy or maybe that was because he flinched at her name. She continued to look at the staff table. She saw a man with black greasy hair staring at her, she stared back. He blinked slowly, then looked back to his plate.

She also looked back at her empty plate feeling slightly embarrassed. She was beginning to get bored when suddenly the food disappeared and was replaced with desserts. She suppressed a sigh and took a small amount of chocolate ice cream; she didn't want to look weird in front of her new house.

As Tacita slowly ate her ice cream she listened to the conversations going on around her. The girl next to her turned towards her.

" You're very quiet," she stated, " I'm Lorna Rose, I'm in my second year here."

" Tacita Riddle." Tacita introduced herself. Lorna indicated to the boy on the other side of her

" That's Jason Ridge, he's in his first year too."

"Hi." He greeted her

"Hi." She replied not looking at him, she hated meeting new people.

Lorna then pointed to a girl opposite her

" That's my little sister, Faith."

"Hey, I'm not that little!" stated Faith angrily. Tacita looked up, Faith had blond hair and dark green eyes, which were blazing with annoyance. Tacita then looked at the boy next to Lorna who was laughing, he had light brown hair. For the rest of the feast Tacita talked to Lorna, Jason and Faith.

Tacita lost interest in the conversation when they started talking about their parents and looked over at the Griffindor table. She saw Harry looking at the staff table and saw him clap a hand to his forehead, she wondered what was wrong and resisted the urge to go up there.

The bearded man in the centre of the table who Tacita had learned from Lorna was Dumbledore stood up once more as the Deserts disappeared.

"Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. A have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few older ones would do well to remember that as well." He stated his eyes twinkling.

" I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third floor corridor on the right­-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

A few people laughed, Tacita tilted her head slightly wondering what could be on the third-floor corridor; she shrugged and turned to Lorna who was frowning slightly. She turned back to Dumbledore

"And now before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" he flicked his wand and snake like words cam out of it. "Everyone pick their favourite tune, and off we go."

The school bellowed the song. Everyone finished at different times, two red haired boys who looked exactly alike were the last to finish, singing it to a slow funeral march. When they finished he clapped loudly.

"Ah, music," he said " a magic beyond all we do here! And now bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Slytherin prefects led the first-years down to the dungeons. Tacita stayed close to Jason and Faith. Lorna had joined her second year friends. The prefects led them to a wall.

"The password's 'basilisk eyes'" stated a thuggish boy who was a prefect. Tacita gasped as the solid wall in front of them turned into a stone archway after the boy had said the password.

The first years entered the Slytherin common room and the archway returned to a wall behind them. Tacita was amazed; there were black sofas around a fireplace. One the walls were pictures of famous Slytherins and even one of Salazar Slytherin himself. Tacita stared at it she was amazed that the portraits could move.

" What are you staring at?" it snapped. Tacita jumped she didn't expect it to talk. Faith and Jason giggled.

" S…sorry." she stammered looking away quickly.

The prefect pointed to two doors, one on the right and one on the left.

" That's where your dormitories are," he told them " the one on the left is the boys and the one on the right is the girls." Tacita looked at the doors noting which one was which. With that the prefect walked towards the boys dormitories and went through. The first-years who were boys followed him. Tacita and Faith went walked towards the door on the right.

Tacita soon found her trunk on her bed she quickly found her pyjamas and got into her warm bed. She was sharing a room with Faith and two other girls; she found out that they were called Enid Sheppard and Bertha Wright before she fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 8 Lessons

**Chapter 8 - Lessons **

Tacita woke early the next day. She sat up and saw that the other girls were still asleep. She decided to get dressed then wait in the common room for them.

As Tacita walked in to the common room she noticed that it was empty. She sat on the black leather sofa in front of the fire and got out 5000 Potions of every level. As she read she didn't notice the door to the boy's dormitory and a blond boy walk in with his two thugs.

The boys spotted her and walked over.

" What are you reading?" asked Malfoy who was obviously the leader. Tacita looked up started.

" Nothing." She replied a bit too quickly and stuffed the book back into her bag. At that moment Faith came through the door to the girls dormitory with Enid and Bertha.

Faith saw her and approached her not even glancing at the boys who were now turning to leave.

" Heya Tacita." She greeted her smiling

" Hi." Tacita replied quietly, she did not look at Faith, as she was busy making sure the boys were gone.

"Lets go to the Great Hall and get breakfast." suggested Faith, Tacita nodded and followed Faith out of the common room. After twenty minutes of wandering around they finally found the Great Hall. Tacita sat down gratefully at the Slytherin table and begun to put some bacon and eggs on her plate.

She finished before anyone else after having eaten only two bits of bacon and one egg. She downed her pumpkin juice and waited for Faith. Faith looked at her strangely

" Aren't you gonna eat anything else?" she asked. Tacita looked at her confused, she now felt perfectly full.

" No," she replied simply " I had a big lunch yesterday."

" What?" Jason, who had sat next to them had now joined into the conversation, " but that was yesterday!"

Tacita shrugged, it was another thing that made her different from everyone else, she could eat a large meal and then only eat small amounts for a few days without feeling hungry. She had hoped that the people here would be the same but no, her eating habits were still abnormal here.

The man with greasy black hair approached the table carrying a pile of small pieces of parchment. He began to give them. Tacita noticed he started with the older students. When finally he approached her, he handed her the piece of parchment

" Thanks." Tacita said quietly not looking at him as she took it.

" What was that?" he asked in a silky voice. Tacita looked at him

" I said thanks," She said a little bit louder " sir." She added quickly remembering her old teachers liked to be called sir and miss.

He didn't move he stared at her with deep black eyes. She stared back not blinking. Eventually he blinked and handed out the last remaining pieces of parchment. Tacita looked around the table and noticed that everyone was staring at her.

Lorna moved closer to where she was sitting and hissed

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Tacita asked, confused now.

"Silence!" The teacher snapped, he immediately had the attention of every Slytherin on the table " I am Professor Snape the potions master and head of Slytherin House."

Tacita watched as a large Slytherin boy took a bite of his roll. Snape looked down at him

" Why are you eating while I speak?" he asked in the same silky tone he had used with Tacita. Tacita saw the boy gulp and he begun to shake slightly. Tacita almost felt the increase of his heartbeat. She wondered why he found it so terrifying; she didn't find it scary at all. " Answer me!"

" S…sorry sir." the boy stammered.

"What's your name?"

"Blaise Zabini sir"

Snape glared at him before grabbing his collar and dragging him from the seat.

" I expect your full attention when I speak," he stated to all of them " I have given you your timetables so go to your lessons!" he dropped the boy and turned his back on them.

The entire Slytherin house ran out the door except Tacita. She looked at her timetable, she had Herbology first. She gulped not knowing where to go as the whole Slytherin house had run off. She had no choice but to ask the greasy haired professor. She glanced up at him and found him glaring at her, a furious expression on his face to find her still there. She got up and walked over to him.

" Excuse me sir," she begun " but could you tell me how to get to Greenhouse 1?"

She watched as his eyes changed from furious to blank. She blinked and resisted the urge to frown, had she seen a hint of something in them before he shielded them. She knew that blank look; it was one she often used in her previous school. This was something she had learnt to do to survive, keep well hidden and don't show your emotions, that was her rule when it came to school. If she had had any friends she might have hung around with them but no one wanted to be her friend, no one human that was, snakes always seemed to want to befriend her. She thought she might get some human friends here though.

" Go out the door and turn left you'll see some greenhouses, they're all labelled." He said gently before sweeping his cloak and heading for the dungeons at a swift pace. Tacita watched him go and shook her head to clear it, his voice was strangely snake like and it confused her. Tacita walked through the door that Snape had indicated, it led outside and she turned left. She got to Herbology just in time and sat down next to Faith.

" Where were you?" whispered Faith while Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher told them all about her subject. Tacita shook her head signalling that she did not want to talk right now. Faith shrugged and redirected her attention to Professor Sprout.

" I suppose that none of the Slytherins have their books with them," she stated sighing, " I really must ask Professor Snape to give you time to get your books after getting your timetable."

When she found out that the Hufflepuffs hadn't brought their books ether, she sighed opening a small cupboard and handed out old and battered copies of One thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

" One between three." She stated counting them. Tacita handed the copy to Faith and Jason who had decided to work together and got out her own.

She had put all her books minus Hogwarts: A History and 101 Curses and Counter Curses as she had finished reading them and knew that they would not be needed in her lessons. Her large black backpack still had enough room for them and she didn't mind the weight but she was hoping to visit the library when she could and get some books out. When she saw that Tacita had her own copy she smiled at her

" Well done for bringing your own book, five points to Slytherin."

Tacita's heart skipped a beat, had she just been awarded points. She had listened to McGonagall's speech but had not thought that she would ever win any points.

Herbology passed well; she followed Faith to Transfiguration, trying to remember the way.

" How do you know where we're going?" asked Tacita

" I asked Lorna before I went to Herbology I think I know how to get to the Dungeons from Transfiguration but that's about it." Faith smiled, Tacita smiled back.

In Transfiguration Tacita earned Slytherin a further five points for being one of the two people who managed to make any change to her match, which she was trying to turn into a needle. Hermione was the other person who did this. Hermione's was slightly more pointed, as Tacita's was the pointed end of the needle with the match end.

The rest of Tacita's lessons, which were History of Magic and then double charms, were still good. She found History of Magic a bit boring but charms had been fun. She had made her feather fly for a few seconds and earned her house another five points.


	10. Chapter 9 Potions Talent

**Chapter 9 – Potions Talent **

On Friday she had Double Potions with the Gryffindors after lunch. She was looking forward to Potions the most because of her fascinating potions book. When she arrived outside the Potions classroom door she was the only one there. She sighed and sat down on the cold stone floor. She knew that she would have to wait as she had skipped lunch, she didn't want any food.

She got out Hogwarts: History and read her favourite part for what had to have been the hundredth time. It was the part when the four founders, found Hogwarts. She had been so immersed in the book that she didn't notice a black-cloaked figure walk over to her.

He stood there, in front of her for a minute, surprised at seeing her there and wondering what to do. She hadn't noticed him; quickly he decided to say something.

" What would you be doing here Miss Riddle?" he asked loudly, he was pleased to see her jump. She looked up at him.

" I'm waiting for Potions sir," she said calmly. He raised an eyebrow. Tacita saw that he didn't believe her " and reading."

" And what would you be reading?" he asked

" Hogwarts: A History." She tried to sound confident but his snake like voice was beginning to unnerve her, she wanted to leave, she wanted to hiss. She hated it when she got this feeling; it was usually when she had spent a while away from any snake contact. She gulped.

" What about lunch?" he asked " Surely you haven't finished already."

Tacita hesitated before replying, " I'm not hungry sir."

" I see," he then whispered "but I noticed that you were not present at breakfast this morning, or dinner last night."

Tacita looked up with a start, was that concern hidden in his voice, she shook her head

" I wasn't hungry then ether sir."

He glared at her for a moment before opening the classroom door.

" You better come in then."

Tacita smiled at him, she couldn't help it, she could sense that this was not the kind of thing Snape did very often. Letting students into his classroom a good twenty minutes before class started. He stood there glaring at her

" Riddle, has someone given you a grinning potion? If not I would suggest you wipe that smile off your face!" he snapped. Tacita looked down quickly, trying hard to remove the smile on her face and entered the classroom.

She sat at the front and took in her surroundings. The room smelt a lot like the apothecary in Diagon Alley. She smiled, she liked the smell, then she remembered what Snape had said and wiped the smile off her face quickly before he saw it. She went back too reading and when she looked up Snape was nowhere to be seen and students were filing into the classroom.

She saw Faith walk in and waved at her indicating to the empty seat next to her like she had seen people in her old school do. Faith just glared at her and went to sit with Enid instead. Tacita lowered her gaze to the table and got out her potions things. A minute later Harry entered, he approached her

" Hey Tacita, can I sit here?" he asked, Tacita looked up at him surprised

" Yeah sure." she told him smiling.

" Listen, I'm sorry about not hanging around with you or saying hi or anything." he looked embarrassed as he sat next to her.

" Don't worry about it." Tacita told him and she continued to get out her Potions things. At that moment Snape swooped in. He started the class.

He began class by taking the register. He paused at Harry's name.

" Ah, yes," he said softly " Harry Potter. Our new – _celebrity_."

Malfoy and his thugs sniggered behind their hands. Snape's black eyes drifted over to Tacita who was sitting to Harry's left staring straight ahead. Tacita was watching him closely but not allowing him to notice. Snape did notice though and was intrigued as to why she was.

He finished the register and got up from his desk

" You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," nobody dared make a sound he continued "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses … I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Tacita was hanging on to every word, when he spoke she got the same feeling as before but this time she felt that she was in the vicinity of a snake. She always felt different when she was near a snake; it was another reason that she loved their company.

" Potter!" Snape said suddenly " What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to am infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked confused, he glanced at Ron. Tacita remembered that she had read the answer in her books earlier when she had finished 5000 Potions of every level and in the assigned book but did nothing. She noticed Hermione's hand shoot up

" I don't know sir." replied Harry. Snape sneered

" Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything," He seemed to be enjoying this " Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Again Harry looked confused and Tacita knew the answer, she said and did nothing. Hermione stretched her hand into the air.

" I don't know sir."

" Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming here, eh, Potter?"

Harry looked into Snape's eyes; Tacita risked a glance at Hermione. She wished she would put her hand down.

" What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

" I don't know," said Harry quietly "but I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

A few people laughed, Snape looked ready to kill.

" Sit down," He snapped at Hermione "for your information Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful that it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you copying all that down?"

This was the first time Tacita had, had to write with a quill. She gulped as she picked up her quill in her left hand. She knew what was going to happen, the sae thing that happened when she used a fountain pen. She dipped the quill into the ink and wrote down what she already knew. As she wrote she smudged the word she had just written before. She gulped when she looked down at her smudged handwriting.

Snape walked around the classroom and paused at her. He saw her smudged handwriting and the ink on her left hand. But also noticed that her hands were shaking as she looked at her writing. He bit back a remark, turning on Harry instead.

" Your handwriting is terrible Potter," he remarked " I suggest you rewrite that." He strode off ignoring Tacita completely.

Tacita glanced at Harry's writing, it looked fine to her, a lot better than hers. She also noticed that Harry was angry, she saw him look at her own work and seemed to get even angrier. He turned away from her slightly and rewrote the paragraph he had just written.

Snape put them in pairs and made them make a potion to get rid of boils. Tacita was placed on her own as there were an odd number of people in the class. This suited Tacita just fine, as it seemed that both Faith and Harry were both angry with her for some reason. She worked well on her own and finished long before everyone else. She raised her hand slowly, unsure of what Snape would do. He seemed to be very unpredictable.

Snape looked up from the parchment on his desk. He swiftly got up and approached her

" Is something wrong Miss Riddle?" he asked softly

" No sir, it's just that I've finished."

Snape looked surprised, before he quickly covered it up. He examined her cauldron

" This looks fine, bottle it and put it on my desk," He thought for a moment before adding " ten points to Slytherin and I would like to see you at the end of class Miss Riddle."

Tacita watched as he examined the other cauldrons. The rest of the lesson was uneventful apart from a Gryffindor boy destroying his cauldron and spilling his potion on himself, this covered him in boils. The Slytherins except Tacita laughed. Tacita sighed, she didn't find it funny. She always had a different sense of humour from others in the class and in her old school she was often bullied for it.

The end of the class came soon after that. Tacita packed her things away slowly and by the time she approached Snape's desk she was the only student there. Snape glared at her, he was still angry from the boil incident.

" Miss Riddle," he begun " how did you brew a boil cure potion so fast?" he asked. Tacita was so taken aback by this question that she didn't reply immediately.

" I don't know sir." Tacita surprised, she suppressed a shudder, she reminded herself too much of Harry when he was being asked questions.

Snape raised an eyebrow at her, staring into her eyes, she stared back

" It is very well made," he looked down at the small vial of Tacita's potion on his desk " I've not seen such quality since …" He shook his head.

Tacita watched him closely wondering why he seemed so preoccupied. He opened a draw in his desk and removes a small bottle of ink.

" I noticed your writing was terrible and thought that you would do better with non-smudging ink." He handed her the bottle, Tacita took it stunned.

" T… thank you sir."

" Don't spread it around that I gave it to you though," He warned her. Tacita nodded, " you may go."

Once Tacita was outside the classroom she looked at the bottle in her hand, she shook her head to clear it and walked towards the Slytherin common room. Her lessons finished for the day.


	11. Chapter 10 Alone

**Chapter 10 – Alone**

As Tacita entered the common room she sensed that something was wrong. The entire Slytherin house was standing in a semi circle around the wall. Tacita wanted to run but her legs seemed to have broken for she could no longer move. Malfoy moved forwards towards her.

"Who are your parents?" He asked, " are they purebloods?"

Tacita froze up, she had no idea who her parents were, except her mothers name, or if they were purebloods whatever that means. She tried to speak but found she couldn't. She started to shake, she hated being surrounded, it made her feel insecure.

" I don't know," she whispered finding her voice. The Slytherins all shouted

" Then we don't want you in Slytherin!" The words were like knife wounds to Tacita.

Tacita searched the crowd searching for a friendly face. She saw Faith and Lorna but they didn't look friendly. Lorna like the others was looking angry whilst Faith wouldn't even look at her.

Malfoy's thugs approached her, as did several of the older students, their wands pointing at her.

In fear Tacita did the only thing she could do. She turned and ran, they chased her out of the dungeons and then returned to their common room. Tacita kept on running until exhausted she found hidden alcove and sat down in it. She started to cry, burying her face in her knees. Even though she was crying harder than she had ever cried before she didn't make a sound, she didn't want to be found.

She forced herself to stop crying and stood up. She wanted to go back to her wood, she wanted to go home and see Harold. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and thought. She remembered Dumbledore saying something about a Forbidden Forest and decided to go here, no one would look for her there unless they knew her really well, and no human knew her that well not even her 'Dad' or Dan.

Keeping to the shadows she snuck out of the school and made her way towards what she thought was the trees. She knew that it was this way even though she could see nothing because she could almost sense the life coming from the forest. When she got to the edge she kept on walking until she literally collapsed with exhaustion and lost consciousness.

She awoke as the sun shone through the trees. She pushed herself up and felt something in her hand. She looked at it, she still had the ink that Snape had given her in the bottle. At the sight of it she remembered her potions books and the Library full of books she would never read. She felt more tears trickle down her face. Why? Why was she always singled out? Why couldn't she have any friends?

Tacita didn't know how long she sat there staring at the bottle in her hand and crying her heart out. Now she was away from anyone who could possibly find her she allowed herself to sob.

An adder approached her

" Human child why do you leak water from the eyes?" It asked, Tacita looked down at it

" Because I'm alone." She replied in snake language

" No you not," stated the adder " Avshed here."

With that the adder coiled itself around her arm and rested its head by her ear. Tacita pocketed the bottle and whispered to Avshed

" I'm Tacita," she swallowed her remaining tears and continued, "I came from big building."

" I know of this place," Avshed whispered back " do you wish to return?"

Tacita shook her head

" My house does not want me because I'm not a pureblood."

" That is nothing to be ashamed of human child," stated the adder sharply " those that care for that are fools, have you heard the tale of when a snake bred with an amphibian?"

Tacita shook her head so Avshed told her the Snake tale. He told her of the resulting hatchling. A snake that could swim under water like an amphibian and had the power of both snake and frog venom together.

" So Tacita, that story just shows that two together in one blood better than single blood," Avshed flicked his tongue on her ear " You tell those pureblood hatchlings that then they know."

Tacita smiled she now felt more elated than ever

" Thank you Avshed," she whispered, " I think I'll go back now."

" I must go now for I must hunt," Avshed whispered " the human building is that way." He indicated with his tail before slithering off into the trees.

Tacita thanked him and stood up to walk only to find that her right leg wouldn't move without causing her extreme pain. She looked down at it; it had a lot of deep gashed on it, _'It must have happened when I fell.'_ She thought. She knew it would be impossible for her to walk that large distance between here and Hogwarts. She sighed as she heard a rumbling from her stomach. It had been a few days since she had a big meal so she was now starting to feel hunger. She sighed again knowing that she would have to drag herself through the forest.

As she dragged herself through the undergrowth she cut her arms and face. Eventually nightfall came and exhausted Tacita 's head fell onto the leafy floor as she fell into a deep sleep.

This is how Snape found her, lying outstretched on her front covered in cuts.

" Miss Riddle?" he crouched down beside her " Miss Riddle?" he said a little bit louder. Gently he turned her over and saw that she was asleep. He sighed, using wingardium leviosa would be useless, as she would just get caught in the thorns that were so prominent in the Forbidden Forest. With that he scooped her up in his arms.

She weighed hardly anything, he almost dropped her with shock. As he started walking back to the castle she half came out of her sleep, she groaned before returning to her deep sleep.

When Snape finally walked through the last trees he noticed Hagrid searching the grounds. He decided to ignore him and take Tacita straight to the Hospital Wing. Hagrid looked up as he passed and saw Tacita in his arms, he immediately went to inform the other teachers.


	12. Chapter 11 Punishment

**Chapter 11 - Punishment**

Tacita awoke the next morning in the hospital wing. She sat up suddenly

"Avshed!" she gasped in snake language. She looked around and saw that she saw in Hogwarts, although she was not completely sure where, as she had not been to the hospital wing before. A nurse saw she was awake and approached her with a bottle of potion in her hand

" I'm Madam Pomfrey," she told her she handed her the bottle "Drink this."

Tacita looked doubtfully at the green liquid in the bottle

" What is it?" she asked

" Revival Draught," replied the nurse as she walked off " Drink that and then you can leave, oh, and Professor Snape said he wanted to see you in his office once you were awake also I found this in your pocket." Tacit took the small bottle that Madam Pomfrey gave her and saw it was the ink that Snape had given her.

Tacita slowly drunk the potion, it made her feel better. She got out of the bed and quickly got dressed. Ten minutes later she was standing outside Snape's office. She gulped and then knocked

" You better have a good reason for disturbing me!" she heard Snape's voice behind the door. Taking this as an invitation in she opened the door.

She saw Snape sitting at his desk with a pile of essays that he was marking.

" Miss Riddle," Snape continued to glare at her " close the door behind you."

Tacita gulped but did as she was told.

" Sit." He ordered

Tacita did so, not meeting his gaze.

" Why?" he asked, Tacita said nothing and pretended to be very interested in her shoes. " well, answer me."

Tacita gulped, she didn't want to tell Snape why she ran into the forest.

"Look at me Miss Riddle."

Tacita looked up reluctantly and saw his black eyes blazing with anger, she gulped and tried to stop her hands from shaking.

" I don't know sir," she lied " I just wanted to see why it was forbidden I suppose." She examined his reaction, she saw clearly that he didn't believe her but she kept looking ahead trying to look honest.

" Malfoy told me what he and the other Slytherins did," he stated suddenly, Tacita gasped, so he knew what had happed, "they will be punished, but you shouldn't have run off like that."

Tacita watched as he stood up, never taking his eyes off her

" Go to the common room, and I expect to see you here in my office at seven tonight," he sneered, " and don't be late." With that he opened the door and waited for her to exit.

As Tacita walked back to the common room she contemplated her punishment. To her it seemed that she had got off lightly but she didn't know what detention would have in store for her so she refused to get optimistic.

Tacita was so deep in thought that she almost walked past the wall to the common room. Stopping in front of the all, she stared at it for a moment before stuttering the password. When the wall opened into an archway she stood outside for a moment before walking through the archway. As she walked through several Slytherins looked up at her. She spotted Faith with Enid in one corner.

As she entered Malfoy got up and walked over to her confidently. His too thugs tried to follow but he shook his head.

" Look, I'm sorry," he said once he was close to her, " Slytherins should stick together." He held out a hand, Tacita was amazed at this; she forced a smile and nodded but did not take his hand and then headed towards the girls dormitories.

When she got to her room she put the bottle of non-smudging ink with her quills. She got out her two potions books and lost herself in them. When she came to a particularly interesting potion that allowed you to change into someone else Faith walked through he door.

She sat on her bed

" Look Tacita, I'm sorry but I can't be your friend." She said quickly, Tacita looked up quickly surprised.

" Ok then." She returned to reading.

" Tacita," Faith looked confused as Tacita looked back up at her "I'm really sorry but I can't be friends with anyone who's friends with a Gryffindor." Tacita thought for a moment

" You mean Harry," she realised, Faith just nodded " he's not my friend Faith." She told her. Faith didn't look convinced.

" But I'm not gonna hate him just because he's a Gryffindor." Tacita was about to return to her reading when Faith spoke up again.

" You don't have to hate him, but if your not friends with him then I guess we can still be friends."

Tacita was now irritated.

" I don't think I want to be friends with someone who judges people because of the company they keep." She told her smoothly and with that she stormed out of the room taking 5000 Potions of every level with her. Several Slytherins glanced up as she left the common room but no one tried to stop her.

Tacita spent the rest of the day in the Library reading every potions book she could get her hands on. When she checked the time she saw it was already ten to six, she gulped remembering her detention with Snape at seven. As quickly as she could she packed up her things and ran down to the Dungeons.

When she knocked on Snape's door she was out of breath.

" Enter." She heard Snape's voice from behind the door. She opened the door and entered. Snape glanced up at her.

" Your late Miss Riddle," he stated " why?"

" Sorry sir, I was in the Library." Tacita fidgeted nervously.

" Sit down," Snape ordered, Tacita quickly did as she was told, " Why were you in the Library?"

" I was reading." Tacita deciding to be truthful, Snape glared at her

"Dumbledore has asked me to punish you as I see fit," Snape said, letting her lateness drop, " so therefore you will have detention at this time with me every day until I decide that you have learnt your lesson." Tacita gulped, detention with Snape every day didn't sound like fun.

" You can start by cleaning those cauldrons, without magic." He indicted to a pile of cauldrons. Tacita picked up a sponge and begun to scrub them.

At half nine Tacita finally finished the cauldrons. She turned to see Snape marking essays again.

" Sir, I've finished the cauldrons." Tacita approached his desk. Snape jumped, she had been so quiet he had forgotten she was there. He checked the time before replying.

" Very well Miss Riddle, you may go," he told her " and don't be late again."


	13. Chapter 12 An Unexpected Friend

**Chapter 12 – An Unexpected Friend **

Tacita awoke in her bed on Friday morning. As usual she was the first one awake. A week had passed since the incident with the Slytherins. She sighed getting up and getting dressed. And left the room with her bag.

She didn't find the common room empty as she normally did. Malfoy sat on the sofa staring into the fire. He looked up as she entered and smiled.

" Hey, Tacita." He greeted; this made Tacita shudder, why was he being so friendly? She nodded to him acknowledging his greeting and went to sit on a table at the far end of the room.

Malfoy approached her.

" Look Riddle, I really am sorry about…" He cut off and hesitated.

" It's alright Malfoy, I don't care." Tacita told him, Malfoy sat down next to her.

" Can't we start again?" he asked, Tacita glanced at him.

" That depends."

" On what?"

" On whether your gonna judge me on my parents or any other friends I may have." she told him calmly, looking straight into his eyes. For the first time she noticed he had grey eyes, she also noticed that he had been crying.

" Are you alright?" She asked carefully, he quickly wiped his eyes

" Yeah," he looked at her " I promise I won't judge you on your parents or your friends." He smiled. Tacita smiled slightly too.

" Then we can start again." She was glad that she could be friends with Harry and have a Slytherin who did not hate her for it. Harry had apologized to her on Monday and they were now good friends even if Ron didn't like it very much because she was a Slytherin.

" You mean Potter don't you." Stated Malfoy.

" What?" Tacita asked confused

" By your other friends, you mean Potter."

" Yeah." Tacita looked down disdainfully wondering if he would go back on his promise.

" I won't go back on my promise," Malfoy told her " but don't expect me to be friends with Potter." Tacita grinned.

" Thanks, Malfoy."

Tacita spent lunch period in the Library she was just reading some books about Transfiguration to help her with the essay she had been set as homework. When she left she saw a group of four Ravenclaw fifth year boys. Tacita sped up her walk slightly as she passed she heard them snicker and as she turned the corner she saw them follow her.

Speeding up her pace even more she came to the staircase leading down. As she was about to step on it, it moved she was now stranded. The boys were closing in; they knew they had her trapped. Tacita gulped and turned to face them.

" Hello there, serpent," said the one in front, he was the tallest and looked like he was the leader " what would you be doing wandering around here alone Slytherin? This is Ravenclaw territory." He spat the word Slytherin as if it were filth. Tacita looked up coolly, anger helping her forget her terror at this moment something about the way he had said Slytherin made her angrier than she had ever bee, she wanted to teach him a lesson, she wanted to teach him respect for _her_ house.

" I was not aware that Hogwarts was split into house territories," she told him coolly " although I do not believe that Dumbledore would agree with it." She smiled sweetly, mocking them. This wiped the grins off the boys face until he remembered himself and grinned again.

" Look guys, the Slytherin thinks she's better than us." He told his friends behind him.

Tacita didn't take her eyes off them, they were reacting just as she thought they would the same way as the bullies at her own school, she put her hand in her pocket and gripped her ebony wand. At her old school punches would be thrown next but seeing as this was a magic school Tacita assumed that spells would be thrown instead of punches.

She was right; the boys all drew their wands as if by some unspoken signal. Tacita kept hers hidden in her problem.

" We'll show you that first years should respect their elders," Said the leader still grinning, " Tarantall…" he was cut off as Tacita whipped her wand out of her pocket and yelled the first spell that came into her head.

" Serpensortia!" she shouted, she had never tried this spell before but she had read about it.

It worked, sort of instead of a venomous snake a Milk Snake came shooting out of her wand. She stared at it for a second then decided to bluff, hoping that the Ravenclaws didn't know much about identifying venomous and non-venomous snakes snakes.

" You better watch out," she called to the Ravenclaw boys who were standing motionless with what Tacita thought was fear, " one drop of venom and from that snake and you'll die painfully in ten minutes, if you don't get the antidote." She decided to try to be realistic says ten minutes instead of immediately.

At that moment Malfoy came running at the Ravenclaws from behind

"Leave her alone!" he shouted getting out his wand. The Ravenclaws, now terrified of the snake didn't need telling twice. They turned and ran past Malfoy screaming

" Poisonous snake!" as they went. Malfoy looked from Tacita to the snake. The snake was now facing Tacita and slithering towards her, Tacita was staring at it with a strange expression on her face.

" Tacita!" Cried Malfoy, he thought that it was a venomous snake, as did the Ravenclaws.

Tacita snapped out of her daze and looked up to see Malfoy staring at her as if she were about to be slaughtered.

" Watch out, the snake." He told her, Tacita glanced at the Milk Snake and started to laugh. Malfoy thought that she had gone completely crazy.

" Don't worry Draco," she told him, Malfoy was surprised at hearing her use his first name " she's not venomous, I was bluffing."

Tacita knelt down and to Malfoy's horror held a hand out to the snake. He saw her lips move but did not hear what she said as she was still a few metres away. The snake slithered on to her, coiling itself around her arm.

" Come on Draco, lets go back to the common room," she said to Malfoy as she stood up " and thanks for coming to help." Draco was surprised by her words again.

"Does that mean we're friends then?" He asked hopefully. Tacita smiled

"Yeah ok." She began to walk down the stairs, which had conveniently gone back to their original position. Draco followed her, also smiling.


	14. Chapter 13 Parselmouth

**Chapter 13 - Parselmouth**

When Tacita and Draco entered the common room, almost all he Slytherins were in there, as most Slytherins had Friday afternoons off. They all looked up as they entered. Many of them gasped to see the red snake coiled around Tacita's arm.

Faith waked over to her with a furtive glance at Draco and then at the snake on Tacita's arm.

" Where did the snake come from?" asked Faith, Tacita stared at her, was she talking to hr again?

" I conjured it using Serpensortia." She told he truthfully, the Slytherins gasped, a large sixth year stepped forward

" How did you know how to do it?" he asked

" I read about it," Tacita hesitated, not used to all this attention " it didn't work properly though." The Slytherins all looked at her as if she was crazy.

" Why not?" asked Draco " I mean, you conjured a snake."

Tacita nodded

" But it's not a _venomous_ snake." Tacita smiled at the Slytherins as they looked at each other with surprise.

" How can you tell?" asked Faith doubtfully, Tacita noticed she had backed away slightly at the mention of venomous snakes. So Tacita told the awed Slytherins how to tell the difference between different types of snake. She even showed them the book that she had brought with her on snakes.

That evening the Slytherins were all jostling with each other to hold the snake, which Tacita had named Alison after her mother. The snake begun to get agitated being surrounded by so many strange people, sensing this Tacita calmed it absentmindedly with a hiss. Unfortunately half the Slytherins heard this.

" You're a parselmouth!" exclaimed Jason excitedly so all Slytherins could hear. Tacita silently cursed herself for hissing, but she had no idea what a parselmouth was.

" What's a parselmouth?" she asked

" Someone who can talk to snakes," explained Faith, " They're really rare."

" Yeah, they even say You Know Who was one!" Said Jason. Tacita had heard about You Know Who in many of the books she had read.

" You mean Voldemort?" asked Tacita trying to make sure she knew who they were talking about, the Slytherins gasped.

" Don't say his name." Draco advised her

" Why not?"

" It's bad luck," Draco looked around at his fellow Slytherins as if asking for assistance, when he got none he continued, " although I don't know why."

" That's silly," Tacita told them " I mean if people are afraid to even say his name how is anyone meant to know who your talking about, You Know Who could be anyone."

Everyone laughed

"I guess we should all start calling him Vol…Voldemort," said a seventh year " It's not like he's alive." The Slytherins laughed again. Tacita was having so much fun with the Slytherins showing them how to say words in snake that she forgot the time.

" Hello." Draco hissed to Alison, he grinned widely when he saw the snake turn towards him and hiss a reply.

" Wow, what did she say?" he asked Tacita, as he had no idea.

" She said hello." she told him, Draco looked proud of himself.

" Just wait until I tell my parents that there's a parselmouth in Slytherin." Exclaimed Jason excitedly, Draco noticed Tacita disdained expression and spoke up for all Slytherins to hear.

" Lets keep it a secret," He told them " you know what people will think if they all know that Tacita can speak snake." The Slytherins nodded in agreement knowing that the other houses would use it as an excuse to make Slytherin look like a worse house than it was.

Snape entered the common room to find his Slytherins circled around a grinning Tacita with a, he had to blink a few times thinking he was dreaming, a snake coiled in her lap. The Slytherins had not noticed his entrance.

" Would you all please inform me of why there is a snake in the common room?" He made sure that his voice was loud enough to travel all around the room. The Slytherins jumped at the sound of their head of houses voice and quickly got up from the floor.

Some of them moved away from Tacita as if being near her would somehow give them a disease, while others, like Draco, Faith and Jason stood near her. Tacita stood up too making sure Alison was safely in her hands. Snape's eyes narrowed.

"Riddle," he was scowling now " why were you not in my office at the appointed time?" He glared at her angrily.

Tacita gulped, she had totally forgot about detention with Snape at seven. She made a quick decision to be truthful.

" S…sorry sir I f…forgot." she stammered.

" You forgot." He whispered, Tacita was not fooled by his calm voice; she could sense that he was furious.

" My office, now!" he ordered " And bring the snake." He added as an after thought. With that he stormed out of the common room.

Tacita looked around at her fellow Slytherins.

" Better not keep Snape waiting." Advised Draco, Tacita didn't reply she nodded and left the common room.

As Tacita rounded the corner to Snape's office she checked the time, it was half eight she was already an hour and a half late! Tacita gulped and walked the remaining few steps to Snape's office. She stroked Alison's scales to calm herself.

She knocked gently on Snape's office door.

"Enter." She heard his snake like voice whisper, shivering she opened the door. He was sitting at his desk waiting for her.

" Sit," he ordered, she quickly obeyed " How, may I asked, did you get a venomous snake?"

" She's not a venomous snake sir," she told him, unable to help herself " she's a milk snake which isn't veno…" She cut off at Snape's glare, he suddenly exploded.

" I don't care what kind of snake it is! Now answer my question!" He was standing now, Tacita was sinking down towards the floor shaking.

" I…I g..got her f..from serpensortia." She stammered, unable to control her fear. She had never seen him so angry.

"What?" he sat down and stared at her " you used serpensortia?"

Tacita nodded not trusting herself to speak.

"How did you learn that?" he asked her quietly.

" I," she took a deep breath to calm down, Alison hissed at Snape not liking the affect he was having on Tacita or his loud outburst, " I read it I a book."

" And you thought you would just try it out?" He raised an eyebrow

She gulped, she knew that she would not be able to lie to Snape but she did not want him to know about the Ravenclaws so she nodded.

" Liar." He declared softly, Tacita gulped and decided to tell him the truth.

" Some boys came after me, they tried to attack me so I used serpensortia to scare them off."

"When was this?"

" Lunch time today."

" What house and year were they in?" he asked.

" R..Ravenclaw f..fith or sixth year I think." She stuttered

Snape just nodded and turned away from her

" Get rid of the snake." He ordered quietly, Tacita gulped and fidgeted nervously in her seat

"Sir, I don't know how." She told him carefully. Snape stared at her for a moment before waving his wand. Alison disappeared with pop. Tacita felt tears in her eyes but refused to let herself cry. Snape continued to stare at her for a moment before speaking

" Miss Riddle, snakes are not allowed as pets in this school," he stood up " is that clear?"

Tacita just nodded

" Is that clear Miss Riddle?" His voice had a dangerous edge to it.

" Yes sir." Tacita whispered. He walked over to the door and opened it

" Your detentions will be held with Filch from now on, you may go."

After Tacita had left Snape checked the time it was quarter to nine. He sighed and swept out of his office and made his way to Flitwick's office.


	15. Chapter 14 Hermione’s Mistake

**Disclaimer -I forgot to say this at the begining but I don't own the HP unverse I only own Tacita (This is for all the chapters)**

**Also sorry its been so long I had a massive block as to what to writ lol**

* * *

**Chapter 14 – Hermione's Mistake **

Tacita walked down the corridor in the direction of the Slytherin common room. As she walked she blinked away her unshed tears. She knew that she wouldn't be able to keep Alison but she hadn't expected Snape to just get rid of her.

She sighed then entered the common room. Draco walked up to her

" What happened?" he asked

" I have to go to detentions with Filch now and Alison…" she looked away. Draco put his arm around her but said nothing. Faith ran over to her and saw the sad expression on Tacita's face,

" Snape got rid of Alison didn't he?" She whispered, Tacita nodded slowly and pulled away from Draco

" I'm going to bed," she whispered " night." With that she left.

The next morning she felt much better, as it was Saturday read in her common room but by the afternoon wanted to go and find other books to read so she went down to the Library. She was looking forward to a full day of reading. When she arrived she found it empty apart from Hermione. Hermione looked up as she entered and smiled

"Hello Tacita, want to sit next to me?"

" Erm sure." Tacita replied taking a seat next to Hermione.

" I heard about what the Slytherins did to you and I think it's awful." Hermione said brightly, Tacita felt anger rising up in her stomach.

" Thanks." She growled.

" You could always ask Dumbledore to let you change houses you know."

" And why would I want to do that?" Tacita snapped " My house is perfectly fine."

" Yes but You Know Who came from your house and you know everyone in your house aren't very nice, but not you though, your fine." Tacita could tell that she was slightly wary of her outburst.

" Yeah well maybe I'm not really alright ! Maybe I'm gonna be the next Voldemort, just because I'm a Slytherin," Tacita was standing now, Hermione cowered back slightly " Is that what you think? Because you're wrong, I would never do what that bastard did and neither would any of the other Slytherins."

" L…language M….Miss Riddle ." Tacita turned around to find Quirrell the Defence against dark arts standing behind her. He was the one that had flinched at her name. " t…ten points f…from Slytherin f…for b…bad language and P...Professor S…Snape w...will be informed." Tacita glared at him before grabbing her bag, she sensed fear emanating from him but stronger than that she sensed white-hot anger. She stormed out of the library.

She walked quickly not knowing or caring where she was going She ended up in the Charms corridor in front of Flitwick's office. She stopped to catch her breath and immediately wished she had chosen a different place to stop as the door opened and Snape stepped out

" I swear Severus, my students wouldn't do that." Tacita heard Flitwick's squeaky voice.

" So what are you saying? That Miss Riddle is lying? I have ways of knowing if she was, you know that." Snape hadn't seen Tacita yet

" Of course not Severus I am just saying that she must be mistaken." Snape snarled and slammed the door, when he turned he spotted Tacita standing there frozen to the spot. He raised an eyebrow when he saw her.

" And what would you be doing here Miss Riddle?" He asked "Nothing sir." Replied Tacita , he stared at her for a moment, Tacita could tell he didn't believe her, he nodded and strode off, his robes billowing behind him.

Tacita went to the toilets after that just so she could get away from all these encounters she kept having today, first Hermione ,then Quirrell, now Snape. As she entered she heard a girl crying, she sighed wondering who it was.

" Are you all right?" She asked

" F...fine." The girl came out of the toilet and Tacita realised that it was Hermione.

" Look if this is about earlier, I'm sorry, I just don't like it when people criticise my house, there really not that bad you know." Hermione just shook her head

" It's not about that it's…."

At that moment a huge Troll burst through the wall. Hermione cowered by the wall at the sight of it. Tacita turned to it whipping out her wand even though she knew it would be useless. The troll walked forwards swinging its club randomly and roaring. Tacita stood in front of Hermione and shouted every spell she could think of. None where having any affect. Realising this she spun round to Hermione

" Hermione! Stop crying and help me out here." The troll's club then found its mark, hitting Tacita on the head and sending her crashing into the wall. She was unconscious for a few minutes before waking up to find the troll rounded on Hermione. Her head hurt badly but she ignored it and stood up pointing her wand at it. Before she could say anything Harry and Ron burst into the room.

" Hermione!" They shouted. Just then an idea occurred to Tacita. She could feel herself loosing consciousness so she shouted "Harry, knock it out with its club!" Ron got the idea quicker than Harry and used Wingardium Leviosa on the club. That was all Tacita saw as she passed out again.

" Miss Riddle," Tacita heard a familiar snake like voice " drink this."

Tacita didn't open her eyes, she felt her mouth being opened and a strange tasting liquid being poured down her throat. Seconds after she felt a tingling sensation in her head where she had been hit. She finally opened her eyes to find Snape kneeling beside with an empty vial in his hand. She noticed that she was leaning against him and quickly pulled away causing her head to throb painfully.

She blinked and looked around her, she was still in the toilets and she noticed that the troll was unconscious on the floor and that Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing in front of McGonagall. Quirrell was standing behind Snape with a terrified expression on his face.

Snape stood up and looked down at her.

" Hospital Wing Miss Riddle, now." He said sharply. Tacita stayed where she was just long enough to hear Gryffindor be awarded points before she left for the Hospital Wing.


	16. Chapter 15 Getting into Trouble

_Hi, sorry for not updating for ages I have no real excuse what can I say, I'm lazy _

**Chapter 15 – Getting into Trouble**

Tacita left the Hospital Wing and checked the time, it was time for her detention with Filch. She started heading for his office not really paying much attention to where she was going.

When she was about halfway there she tripped over something small and furry. She heard a painful yowl as she landed on it. She quickly removed her weight from it and turned to see what she had tripped over. It was Mrs Norris, she had heard about how horrible she was to students but she personally had no reason to hate the cat so she whispered

" You should be more careful cat," Tacita begun to stroke Mrs Norris's fur as she stood up " you could really get squashed with some people around here."

" No, you should look where your going." Stated a cruel voice behind her. Mrs Norris meowed and walked over to her master, as Tacita stood up. Filch stood before her his face a scowl as always.

" You should be at detention with me."

" Erm, yes sir, I was just heading that…"

" Making excuses now are we?" He cut her off sneering.

"No sir I just…"

" I don't want to hear your excuses, if only the headmaster would allow me to chain you up in the dungeons, that would set you straight," He sneered again then turned " but alas poor Filch has to make do with only mere cleaning punishments, follow me and don't think of running away Mrs Norris will find you if you do." Tacita followed him to his office.

When she arrived she found a huge stack of cauldrons.

" You have to clean those cauldrons that Professor Snape gave me to do, no magic, no talking, well, what you waiting for? Start" He sneered.

Tacita got to work on the cauldrons, when she finished Filch gave her something else to do from McGonagall, then Flitwick and then Sprout. _'When is this going to end?'_ Tacita wondered, as she was about halfway through Sprout's task.

By the time she was finished it was 9:30. Filch was reluctant to let her go but Mrs Norris was begging for food so he did. Tacita stumbled into the common room and collapsed on a black leather sofa. The common room was empty apart from a few seventh years and Draco. Draco walked over too her when he saw her.

" Was detention with Filch really that bad?" Tacita nodded and sat up.

" I had to clean cauldrons for Snape, sort matches and needles for McGonagall, Fix hourglasses for Flitwick, and scrub pots for Sprout," Tacita sighed "without magic and not even a sponge for the cleaning."

" Huh, then what'd you use to clean the cauldrons and pots?"

Tacita showed him her black hands and he gasped.

" You should tell Snape, I'm sure that's against the law."

" Tell me what Mr Malfoy?" Malfoy jumped and turned to see his head of house leering down at him. When Draco just gulped he smirked. " Miss Riddle I want to see you in my office." He whispered not taking his eyes off Draco who was now examining his feet.

" Why sir?" Tacita glared at him, _'I'm already tired; I did my detention, what now? Just leave me alone.'_ Snape's glared back at her.

" Because Miss Riddle I have asked you to and I am your head of house," he replied silkily " my office in five minutes Miss Riddle and make sure you wash your hands."

" What the hell did you do that for?" Demanded a seventh year girl "Do you want Snape in a bad mood?" Tacita ignored her and stalked to the bathroom to wash her hands. Draco followed her to the door and waited outside.

"Hey, do you want me to come with you?" He asked when she came out " I mean I could hide round the corner and…"

" Don't worry about it Draco, thanks anyway though." Tacita smiled at him and swept out of the common room.

About half way to Snape's office she examined her hands. They were red from using them to clean cauldrons in her detention and burned slightly whenever she touched them. _'It must be from the cleaning potions I used.'_

She arrived at Snape's office door and sighed at how familiar this scene was. As she knocked on the door she winced as her hands burned.

" Enter." Tacita entered and hid her hands behind her back.

Snape was sitting at his desk.

" Miss Riddle, please sit." He whispered, his voice slightly dangerous, Tacita sat down in the familiar chair.

" Why must you insist on making trouble for yourself Miss Riddle?"

Tacita said nothing she could feel that if she even moved right now he would explode.

" Professor Quirrell informed me of the reason he took points from Slytherin earlier," Snape glared at her " I will not tolerate inappropriate language in Slytherin Miss Riddle, do you have anything to say?"

" Y…yes sir, I don't believe it was inappropriate sir." Tacita stated defiantly.

" Oh, and why would that be?" Tacita could tell that it was taking a lot of self-control to keep his voice level.

" I believe that calling Voldemort a bastard is entirely appropriate sir."

Snape rose from his seat and stared down at her.

"Miss Riddle I believe that you are getting too above yourself," He narrowed his eyes " how many of the teachers tasks did you complete?"

" What?"

" In your detention Riddle, what else?"

" Oh, I completed yours, Professor McGonagall's, Professor Flitwick's and Professor Sprout's."

" Perhaps I will ask Filch to find you a task, and believe me, that won't be pleasant."

" Neither were the ones I did." Tacita was getting irritated and her hands were beginning to feel like they were on fire. She rubbed them absentmindedly.

Snape noticed her hands then, they were even redder than they had been moments ago.

" Show me your hands Riddle." He whispered

" Why?" Tacita was too tired to see sense and the pain in her hands was not easy to ignore. Snape ignored this and grabbed her wrists pulling her hand out in front of her.

" How did this happen?" he asked as her inspected the skin which was now peeing as if it was sun burned.

" Cleaning cauldrons." Tacita stated angrily, she felt that it was all his fault and although he was being gentle her hands felt like they were being torn off at his touch.

" Did you not use a sponge?" He asked looking up at her surprise in his black eyes.

" No, Filch did not allow it."

Snape twitched with anger before releasing her hands. Tacita jerked them back. Snape disappeared into a cupboard in his office and came out with a bottle in his hand. He pulled the cork out and walked over to her.

" Your hands Miss Riddle." He hissed holding his hand out. Tacita shuddered at his snake like whisper, she placed one of her hands in his without thinking about it. He tipped some blue salve on her hand. Tacita flinched in surprise as the salve instantly cooled her hand. Snape put some more on making sure that her entire hand had a thin layer on it.

" Your other hand please Riddle." He whispered with the same snake like hiss. Tacita obeyed silently examining her hand as the salve disappeared leaving her flesh unmarked.

Snape straightened up and placed the now empty bottle on his desk. Tacita examined her hands but her head snapped up at Snape's cough.

"Th…thank you sir." Tacita stuttered.

" Now perhaps I will be able to talk to you properly." Snape remarked. Tacita hung her head in shame.

" I'm sorry sir." She whispered

" You will not do any more detentions for now Miss Riddle but believe me if you loose any more points for Slytherin you will end up with far worse than a mere detention," he glared at her for a second " you may go."

Tacita nodded and ran out of his office. She returned to the common room where Draco was waiting for her.

" How'd it go?" He asked, Tacita collapsed on the sofa

" Don't ask," She though for a moment then grinned " but at least I don't have to do detention for a while." Draco smiled at that.


	17. Chapter 16 Death

**Chapter 16 – Death**

Tacita awoke the next morning. She quickly got up and got dressed not waiting for the other girls to finish. She was half way to breakfast when Harry caught up with her.

" Hey, Tacita." He grinned

" Hi." Tacita smiled back

" You alright from yesterday?" He asked " You didn't hear but McGonagall gave you 5 points when you left."

" Yeah I'm alright, McGonagall did what?" Tacita glanced at him, he was staring at her.

" She gave you 5 points because it was your idea about the club."

" Yeah, but I didn't do anything," she grinned " unless you count getting hit round the head and being unconscious." Harry laughed at this

" What happened to Slytherin pride?" He elbowed her playfully in the arm. Tacita laughed elbowing him back

" What happened to Gryffindor courage? All you were doing was standing there brandishing your wand like a stick, you should take up fencing." They both burst out laughing.

Snape watched in surprise. There was Miss Riddle, one of his Slytherins and Potter insulting each other but laughing about it. He didn't know why he got a weird feeling about this.

" Miss Riddle, Mr Potter, would you please stop blocking the corridors people need to walk through here and would prefer not to be blocked by laughing idiots." He sneered pleased as the laughing stopped as soon as he began to speak.

"S…sorry Professor." Tacita said stifling a giggle, Snape decided to ignore this and turned his glare to Harry.

Harry glared back. Tacita noticed this and realised that he was not going to apologise.

" Erm, well Professor we should get going." Tacita tried to cover for her friend subtly elbowing him, snapping him out of whatever Snape killing fantasy he was having. They began to walk away.

" Oh, and Potter," Snape sneered as Harry turned around " ten points will be taken from Gryffindor loitering in the corridors."

Harry was about to argue but Tacita quickly dragged him away

" Seriously Harry are you really a Griffindor or do you just tell everyone that so Snape doesn't take points from your house."

" Loitering, loitering," Harry growled " ten points for loitering if that's loitering what were you doing?"

" Harry," Tacita stopped him walking " you should have apologised to him that's all, he was annoyed you didn't."

Harry turned on her "Why'd he not take points off you?"

" Because I apologised," she replied calmly " if I hadn't I would have probably got us both a detention."

" Fine whatever." Harry muttered and began walking again

"Harry…" Tacita started but Harry quickly cut her off

" I know, I know, he won't take points off Slytherin but he will from any other house coz' he's a greasy biased git, It's ok Tacita."

" I would appreciate it if you didn't insult my head of house." Tacita gritted her teeth to stop herself from shouting.

" It's true though." Muttered Harry.

They had reached the Great hall, which was deserted apart from a few early risers and a few teachers. Harry stalked off to the Griffindor table. Tacita glared after him before walking over to the Slytherin table. '_Why is it so hard to be friends with him?'_ She wondered as she took a small amount of food onto her plate.

Her first lesson was Defence against the Dark Arts, She quickly finished breakfast and rushed to her classroom even though she knew she would be far to early.

She sat down outside the classroom getting out a potions book she had borrowed from the library. Eventually people began arriving so she stood up and put her book away.

Quirrell opened the door and surveyed the students before him then stuttered "C…come in p..p..please." The students followed him into the classroom and took their places. Tacita took her usual place next to Draco.

" Hi, Tacita." He muttered as Quirrell began stuttering about something to do with vampires.

" Hi." Tacita replied

" You weren't at breakfast." He stated looking at her with concern.

" I was, I just had an early breakfast and left before you got there."

" Oh, ok then," Draco hesitated " could you wait for me next time?"

Tacita sighed, " I'll try Draco but I can't guarantee it."

The rest of the lesson was uneventful but at the end of the lesson Quirrell asked her to stay behind. Tacita approached his desk.

" You wanted to see me sir."

" Y…yes Miss R..Riddle," he trembled slightly as he said her name " y…yesterday you s..said some d..disgracef…ful l..language."

" Oh, I'm sorry professor." Tacita fidgeted uncomfortably on the spot.

" H…ow w…where y…y r…raised t…to h…have s…such ap…ppalling l…language?" Tacita noticed his stutter getting worse and felt uncomfortable.

" I was raised by my step-dad," She told him " and he raised me to speak properly, I just forgot myself yesterday."

" I s…see and w…what about y…our m…m…mother." He winced slightly as if he was in pain.

" I never knew my mother and my step-dads wife died just after by step-brother was born."

" I…I'm s...sorry t…to h…ear a...about that," He stuttered " y...ou may g...go."

Tacita nodded confused then walked towards the door.

"M…Miss R…Riddle," Tacita turned as she was about to go out the door " I really am sorry."

Tacita nodded uncertainly _'That was the first sentence I have heard without him stuttering' _she thought before walking out the door and heading to Herbology.

The rest of the day was uneventful as Tacita walked into the great hall with Draco. They sat down together and begun eating. Draco took a large amount of food while Tacita took a little bit and nibbled at it.

She looked up at the staff table, Snape was watching her but looked down when she met his eye. She also noticed that Quirrell was missing. She sighed and turned back to her food.

" So, I never got round to asking you, what did Quirrell want to talk to you about?"

" Something that happened yesterday."

" What was that?" Tacita shrugged showing that she didn't want to say anymore.

Draco turned back to his meal.

" Listen Draco I have some homework to finish I'll be in the library."

Draco looked up and glanced at her plate.

" But you've eaten hardly anything!" He stated before she could run off.

" Yeah well I'm not hungry." She sighed. No one understood her strange eating habits and she didn't want to explain them to anyone.

As she arrived at the Library she saw Jason and Faith sitting in a corner with some book. They looked up as she entered but returned straight to reading as they saw who it was.

Tacita settled down at a table at the opposite side of the room and got out her Transfiguration essay. Just as she completed it the library closed and she was forced to return to her common room quickly before curfew.

The common room was filled up with Slytherins. She headed towards Draco and his friends Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. As she approached she overheard them talking

" Greg, Vin I'm not ditching you, she's my friend too."

" But we need you for work." Gregory said dumbly, Vincent grunted in agreement.

" Guys, I can't do your homework for you, even if I could I wouldn't and anyway I can't always help you in class."

Tacita decided she didn't want to get involved and headed straight for her dormitory. She got ready quickly and got into bed. She had some trouble getting to sleep. For some reason she felt uneasy. She got up at about 12:00 and noticed that the rest of the girls in her dormitory were fast asleep.

She decided to go to the common rooms. She grabbed her wand and walked into the common room. She sat down on the sofa and stared into the dying flames.

She wondered why she felt so uneasy and contemplated what had happened today. The only thing that was odd was her conversation with Quirrell she fidgeted slightly. After half an hour she decided to return to bed. Tacita somehow managed to sleep after that although when she woke up she still felt uneasy.

Surprisingly she was the last to wake up, she quickly got ready and walked into the common room.

"Hey Tacita," Draco ran up to her, he look uncomfortable for a moment before muttering " erm is it alright if I hang around with Greg and Vin today?"

" Sure Draco I don't mind." Tacita replied truthfully, she didn't really want to talk to anyone today anyway. Draco smiled at this.

" Thanks Tacita I'll see you round then."

" Yeah see you."

Tacita sat down on the sofa and read her charms book as her housemates disappeared off to breakfast. She wasn't hungry and couldn't be bothered eat anything.

Her lessons were uneventful that day. She found that she was hungry by lunch so ate a lot. She was sitting in the common room alone reading as usual. Snape entered the common room, a few Slytherins looked up as he entered but no one said anything.

He walked straight over to Tacita who was immersed in her book. He waited for her to notice him towering over but soon realised that she wouldn't. A couple of older years looked over curiously. He wanted to get this done and over with.

"Miss Riddle." He said quietly, he resisted the urge to smirk when she jumped.

" Yes sir." She looked up at him.

"Come." He said simply. Tacita looked at him confused.

"Why sir?" She asked.

" Because I told you too Miss Riddle." He said softly and headed for the door. He held it open and waited for her to follow. She put her book back in her bag and slung it over her shoulder before following.

The eyes of every Slytherin in the common room were on her as she left. Tacita automatically turned towards Snape's office.

" Where are you going Miss Riddle?" He asked in his snake like voice.

"Your office sir." She replied

"Not today Riddle," He stated, " Come." With that he turned and walked off in the opposite direction. Tacita almost had to run to keep up with him.

He led her to a gargoyle that Tacita had never noticed before.

"This is the door way to Professor Dumbledore's office," He explained quickly "Butterflies and sugar." He said the last part disapprovingly but Tacita barely noticed. She jumped as the gargoyle jumped aside to reveal a spiral staircase.

Snape indicated that she should go first. Tacita hesitated

"Erm sir," she "am I in trouble?"

" No Miss Riddle." Snape said impatiently, Tacita stepped onto the moving staircase and felt Snape get on behind her.

The staircase ended at a door. She looked at Snape questioningly. He sighed and knocked on the door.

"Come in Severus." Said a voice from behind the door that Tacita recognised as Dumbledore's. They entered, Dumbledore was sitting at a desk. Tacita looked around the room with interest, there were portraits of past head teachers lining the walls of the circular room and a wide variety of strange objects around the room.

" Please take a seat Severus, Miss Riddle," Snape sat down in one of the chairs and Tacita sat next to him " may I offer you a sherbet lemon?" He asked holding out a bowl.

" No thank you Albus." Snape replied glaring at the headmaster. Tacita looked at the bowl, she decided to just copy Snape and decline.

"No thanks sir." She whispered, unlike Snape she didn't glare at him. Dumbledore put the bowl down and took one for himself.

" Miss Riddle, I suppose you are wondering why you are here." He put his arms on the table.

" Yes sir I was."

" I have some bad news to tell you." His blue eyes were not twinkling as they usually did.

"What bad news?" She asked cautiously.

"It concerns your step-father and step-brother…"

"Are they alright?" Tacita interrupted.

"I'm afraid not Miss Riddle, you see they're…Dead."

Tacita felt her world shatter " Dead?" she asked, her voice just above whisper.

" I'm afraid so Miss Riddle." Snape said gently. Tacita turned her gaze to him.

" How?" she asked

" They were murdered with the killing curse." Dumbledore told her simply, Snape glared at him.

"But, who would..." She cut off, she felt tears threatening to fall but she swallowed them _'I can't cry now.'_ She thought.

" We don't know Miss Riddle," Snape told her " but I can assure you the best aurors are looking into it."

" Can I go?" Tacita asked. Dumbledore reluctantly let her go only after another glare from Snape. Tacita left the office and headed for the Slytherin common room. She didn't want to be with anyone but she thought she should head in that direction.

As she walked she began to cry. She started to run hoping that the tears would run away. Eventually she collapsed in a hidden alcove and bawled her eyes out.

"I think she took that rather well don't you Severus?" Dumbledore said grimly.

" Not really Albus." Replied Snape carefully, he knew where this conversation was going to go.

" You say she is nothing like her father Severus?"

" Yes." Snape stated in a bored tone.

" I don't know Severus."

" Albus, she is not her father."

"Of course, of course." Dumbledore waved his hand to emphasize the point.

"If you will excuse me Albus I have a first year that I must make sure actually makes it to her common room." Snape was about to leave when Dumbledore stopped him.

"Severus keep an eye on her and if there is the slightest hint that she … is following the same path as her father did then you must inform me." Albus was watching him closely.

Snape sighed but nodded his head, he knew there was no way he could convince Dumbledore that the girl was not her father. He opened the door and swept out.

He slowly walked back to the common room. He stopped when he heard muffled sobs coming from a hidden alcove in the dungeons.

He moved towards them. He found Tacita leaning against the wall curled up in a ball, bawling her eyes out.

He knelt down beside her. Tacita looked at him then turned away not wanting him to see her tears. Snape awkwardly put his arm around her.

"Tacita, you don't need to hide your tears." He said gently. Tacita turned suddenly and buried her face in his chest. Snape resisted the urge to push her away. Instead he put his other arm around her, _'How can Albus think that this girl is anything like her father?'_ He wondered.

Eventually Tacita's tears subsided and she pulled away.

"Sorry sir." She whispered not meeting his eyes.

"You have done nothing to be sorry about Miss Riddle," he watched her closely " do you want to return to the common room now?" Tacita shook her head, she didn't want her housemates to see her in this state.

Snape sighed, "Then perhaps we should go to my office, I have something to show you." He stood up, pulling Tacita up too. He kept a hand on her shoulder as if afraid that she would run.

He led her too his office. As she entered she noticed a cardboard box on Snape's desk.

"Tacita, is that you I smell?" came a familiar hiss from inside it.

"Erm, what's that sir?" She asked not daring to believe what she had heard.

" A snake was found at your residence when it was searched, it seems unharmed." Tacita looked at him before rushing over to the box.

"Harold!" she hissed as quietly as she could. Snape heard though and he stared at her in shock, shaking his head he decided to leave it for later.

Tacita opened the box and saw him. Harold looked up at her with his black eyes. "Tacita it's good to see you, but your brother he's…"

" I know, I was just told Dad too." She hissed, a few tears fell from her eyes.

" Aw Tacita, don't leak water from the eyes." Harold slithered out of the box and wrapped himself around her neck. Tacita smiled slightly and wiped her tears away.

She stroked his beautiful scales. He was yellow with dark red patches . His head was the strangest part of him though, it was dark red but had a black patch around each of his eyes which made his eyes look bigger than they really were.

"Then you know this snake." Snape crept up on her, Tacita jumped she had forgotten he was there.

"Yes sir," She told him " His name's Harold, he was D…Dan's snake." Snape nodded

" He will be kept in my office until I can find a better place for him."

Tacita looked at him shocked.

"You mean he has to leave Hogwarts?" She asked. Snape sighed,

" Yes Miss Riddle, he can't stay here, you can't have a pet snake and none of the teachers will care for him."

'_Not that Albus would allow a snake in the school permanently anyway, I'm glad I didn't kill this one as he wanted me to.'_

Harold begun slithering under her jumper. Tacita let him then thought of something.

"Couldn't you look after him sir?" Tacita begged

" No Miss Riddle, I am looking after him on a temporary basis but I don't have the time to look after a snake permanently," Snape watched her as she looked down at the floor " you must understand this Tacita." He said in a gentler tone. Tacita looked up suddenly an idea struck her.

"Sir you say he'll be kept in your office?" She asked

"Yes Miss Riddle, but only until a better home is found." Snape answered wearily.

"Well, he could stay here but I could come every morning and evening and look after him."

Snape stared at her _'She doesn't give up does she?'_ He thought _'But still, if I could convince Albus, no he'd never agree.'_

" I will keep that in mind Miss Riddle," He said at last, Harold had disappeared totally in Tacita's jumper and there was a bulge around her stomach, which she was cradling, Snape resisted the urge to laugh at the sight " Get that snake out of your jumper and put it back in the box Riddle, I will escort you back to the common room."

Reluctantly Tacita did as she was told.

" I hope I'll be able to see you soon my friend." Harold hissed as she put him back.

" I hope so too." She replied quietly hoping that Snape wouldn't hear. She turned and followed Snape back to the common room.


	18. Chapter 17 Arguments

**Chapter 17 – Arguments**

Snape stopped outside the common room. " Are you sure your ready to return?" He asked, Tacita just nodded Snape muttered the password and Tacita entered the common room silently. She felt the eyes of everyone on her. She walked over to a sofa and sat down, staring at her feet. She looked up at the entrance and saw Snape still staring at her. He nodded in acknowledgement when their eyes met before turning and striding away, his robes billowing behind him.

The entrance closed quietly. Tacita felt more tears coming, she started trembling. Draco approached her cautiously.

"Tacita, are you alright?" He asked with concern, Tacita swallowed her tears and shrugged.

" Yes." She replied in a monotone.

" You know you can tell me anything." Tacita's grief turned to anger.

" And what if I don't want to tell you?" She muttered harshly.

" You don't have too it's just I might be able to help."

" I don't want to tell you anything." She snapped, tears begun running down her face.

" Tacita…"

" Leave me alone," She shouted as she stood up " why don't you go hang around with 'Greg and Vin.'" The eyes of every Slytherin were following the argument like a tennis match.

" Tacita, if you cared about that you should have said something."

Draco's face looked hurt, he tried to put his arm around her but she pulled away.

" Just leave me alone Malfoy."

" Tacita I…"

" I said leave… me… ALONE." She screamed the last part as loud as she could. Crabbe and Goyle were watching the scene with big smirks on their faces. Tacita stormed off towards her dormitory.

Draco looked around helplessly, the Slytherins glared at him, apart from Crabbe and Goyle who were still grinning stupidly.

"What've you done Malfoy?" Lorna asked angrily. Draco didn't answer he looked around and spotted Crabbe and Goyle.

"Greg, Vin, you better wipe those grins off your faces before I hex you." He snapped at them, They got up and went over to him, they stopped grinning.

" Now you hang around wiv us instead of Riddle." Goyle stated triumphantly.

" Yeah, wiv us, not Mudblood Riddle." Crabbe grinned as if he had just been told that Christmas was coming early.

Draco whipped out his wand " If you say that again I really will hex you."

Crabbe stared at the wand stupidly with his mouth open slightly. Goyle picked up on the threat quicker and dragged Crabbe away muttering something about his dad not wanting him to get in trouble. Draco put his wand away and retreated to the boys dormitories.

Tacita lay down on her bed crying _'Why them?'_ she thought _'Dad, Dan.' _She thought of Harold he was her only link to them, she couldn't let Snape send him away. She cried herself to sleep.

The next morning when Tacita went down for breakfast Draco approached her "Tacita," he said nervously "Are you alright?" Tacita looked at him.

"No." she replied simply, she turned to go when Draco spoke

" What's wrong? Tell me Tacita it will help you feel better if you tell someone, I promise." Tacita tensed, she couldn't tell him she just couldn't. Maybe if she didn't say it, it wouldn't be true.

"" I don't want to tell you, leave me alone, Malfoy." She spat the last word hoping that it would make him go away.

Draco looked like he was going to cry, she felt a stab of guilt and found she could no longer look him in the eye. She turned and walked towards the entrance of the great hall, not wanting to be in the same room as him. She got about half way before Harry cut her off.

" Hey Tacita," He smiled slightly " what's wrong? Is Malfoy being a git again?" Tacita glared at him

" No." She tried to walk around him but he cut her off again.

" What's wrong then? Is it Snape?"

Tacita clenched and unclenched her fists to stop herself from punching him, how dare he say that about the only two people who had been nice to her since her families death, she felt another stab of guilt when she thought of Draco, tears came to her eyes.

" No, it's not them." She said quietly

" Then what is it?" He put a hand on her shoulder but she grabbed it and pushed him away.

" Don't touch me." She said coldly. Harry's friend Ron approached, he grinned when he saw her tears.

" Tacita…"

" Leave me alone Potter." She snapped and stalked out of the great hall.

"Blimey Harry, what'd you do to the snake?" asked Ron delightedly, Harry watched her go.

" Shut up Ron, you know she's my friend," He began walking towards the Gryffindor table, Ron following closely " she's just upset about something."

" About what?" Harry glanced at him then sat down at the table.

"I don't know." He replied.

Snape watched Tacita carefully. She was working alone at the front of the classroom as usual. Draco kept glancing up at her over his potion but she ignored him. The class were making a pain killer potion.

Harry entered the classroom.

"Sorry I'm late professor." He panted, Snape stared at him, how dare he come to his class late.

" 20 points from Gryffindor and detention tonight at seven Mr Potter." The Gryffindors groaned and the Slytherins grinned except for Tacita who didn't react, she hadn't even looked up when Harry entered. Harry grumbled and took his place in between Tacita and Ron.

Tacita finished her potion quickly and put her hand up. Snape approached her

"Yes Miss Riddle." He said knowing exactly why Tacita had put her hand up. Her potion was the perfect shade of purple.

"I think I've finished sir." She said quietly not looking him in the eyes as she normally did. He examined the potion more carefully _'good,'_ he thought _'her grief hasn't affected her potions skill.'_

" 10 points to Slytherin," He glanced at Neville Longbottom a Gryffindor boy who was hopeless at potions, his potion looked like mud and smelt like a gas leak, he knew that it would explode if the idiot boy added the dragon talons he was grinding up " Go and assist Longbottom, I will bottle this." Tacita looked over at him, her

"Yes sir." She said quickly before walking over to him.

" Erm, hi." She greeted him.

"Hi." He looked at her nervously.

" Snape told me to come help you." His eyes narrowed

" I don't need help from a snake."

" I was told to help you Longbottom, and if I were you I wouldn't add those dragon talons yet." Longbottom studied her carefully trying to decide if she was telling the truth.

" Why not?" he asked fidgeting nervously.

" Because you'll cause your cauldron to explode." He glanced at his cauldron taking a step back as if afraid it would explode then and there.

" But if you don't want my help, you can be the one to tell Snape why you won't have a potion or a cauldron by the end of the lesson." She turned to go.

"W…wait," He stuttered, Tacita looked back at him " I… I think I'll accept your help, If it's ok with you of course."

Tacita grinned.

" OK Longbottom." She stood next to him and begun helping him fix his potion. Potions always seemed to make Tacita happier, fixing Longbottom's potion made her feel a great satisfaction.

"Times up." Snape swooped around the classroom examining the student efforts. He stopped when he got to Longbottom's, Tacita was standing away from him slightly, the smile on her face dropping as she remembered her the previous day and breakfast. He noticed the slight sparkle in her eyes dim and she began examining her shoes.

" This is acceptable," he looked at Tacita and smiled slightly when she looked up at him " Longbottom, perhaps you have learned something from Miss Riddle." Longbottom visibly shrank away from Snape's cold glare.

The class cleared their work area away. Just as Tacita was about to leave Snape called her back. He waited for everyone else to leave before speaking.

" You did well with Longbottom's potion," he told her, Tacita smiled slightly " you seem to have a natural talent in potions." Tacita shrugged.

" I read a lot sir," she stared at him for a while " this is not why you called me back, is it professor."

"No," He sat down at his desk " I noticed at breakfast you did not seem to be on friendly terms with your friends Malfoy and Potter."

Tacita gulped and looked down at her feet "No." she whispered.

"Miss Riddle look at me when you speak to me." Tacita didn't move, she felt tears in her eyes again she didn't want Snape to see _'All I seem to do now is cry, I hardly cried before…' _Snape got up from his desk and approached her.

" Miss Riddle…" He stopped noticing her tears fall to the floor. He put his hand under her chin and pulled her head up.

" I'm sorry sir." She pulled away and wiped her eyes.

" Miss Riddle we will continue this discussion later, come to my office at eight."

Tacita nodded and left the classroom quickly. Charms went too slowly for Tacita, she sat on her own and struggled with trying to fix her box. She couldn't concentrate; she was too busy keeping herself from crying.

" Riddle, keep trying." Squeaked Flitwick when he caught her staring at her box. She nodded and waved her wand aimlessly.

"Reparo." She muttered causing nothing but a few sparks to fly out of her wand.

"No Miss Riddle, the wand movement is like this," he waved his wand and squeaked clearly " Reparo." The box instantly repaired itself, Tacita stared at it.

"Now you try Riddle." He waved his wand again and the box lay broken in front of her. She waved her wand and tried again the box pieces twitched but made no move to fuse together. She stared at them for a minute. Tacita kept half-heartedly trying to mend the box but failed each time. By the end lesson she was one of the only ones who hadn't managed to make any change to her box.

"Miss Riddle, five points from Slytherin for not trying." Squeaked Flitwick when he saw her box at the end of the lesson. Crabbe and Goyle who also had not been able to make any change to their boxes looked up fearfully and tried to hide their boxes.

"Sorry Professor." Tacita muttered.

" If you were to spend more time attempting to repair your box and less time staring at it you would have more chance of succeeding," Flitwick turned to the rest of the class " class dismissed."

Tacita's lessons continued in this manner. She lost a total of 20 points. She longed to return to Potions, where she could momentarily forget all her troubles. She still felt guilty about how she had spoken to Draco and Harry but she couldn't bring herself to approach them.

Instead of hanging around with the Slytherins Tacita decided to hide in the library until she had to see Snape. She sat in the far corner and surrounded herself with books about anything and everything. Eventually she decided she better make her way to Snape's office.

As she walked out of the Library she saw the 3 of the four Ravenclaw boys that she had to deal with before. They tried to feign disinterest as she walked past. She gulped and thought quickly. She thought of the halls ahead of her and an idea struck her. She pretended not to notice them and glanced at them as she turned the corner, they had begun following _'I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart, they obviously don't want me to know they're following me so why are they walking now?'_ she wondered. She saw a big statue not far down the hall, quickly she hid behind waiting for them to turn the corner.

"Where'd she go?" asked one, looking around.

"She can't have gone far," the leader of the group glanced around " Craig, go to the end of this hall, Mark, you block off the other end." The boys instantly followed his orders. The leader started looked behind the many tapestries on the wall he knew that many of them concealed a hidden alcove.

He got closer to her; she got out her wand silently and thought back to all the books she had read for a suitable spell. She couldn't think of anything that would get rid of all three of them and she didn't think Serpensortia would work again. He was now almost at the statue. Tacita gripped her wand they was only one thing she could think of doing and it wasn't her best idea.

Silently she cast Serpensortia repeatedly and told the snakes to stay there until the boy came. She moved around the statue glancing at the boy named Craig first, he was looking in the opposite direction. She looked back to the leader and when he had his head stuck in a tapestry she silently moved to the closest tapestry to the statue. She was lucky, she had no idea, which tapestries had alcoves behind and which didn't but this one did.

She waited until she heard a cry from the leader and the other boys run towards him before moving. She snuck out of the alcove and ran down the hall.

"Hey the snake's getting' away." Shouted one, Tacita didn't turn around but ran as fast as she could towards the dungeons.

'_I have to get to the dungeons,'_ she thought _'once I'm there I have the advantage, no Ravenclaw knows the dungeons better than a Slytherin.'_

She ran as fast as she could but she had failed to anticipate their speed. She pointed her wand over her shoulder and fired random spells at them, hoping that they would slow down. She turned a corner and crashed straight into Flitwick.

Well, more like she tripped over him and did a forward flip in the air. " Riddle, watch where you're going!" squeaked Flitwick. As he said this, the three boys skidded around the corner.

"There she is…. Oh, hi professor." The leader noticed Flitwick sprawled on the floor. Tacita stood up quickly.

"Sorry professor." She apologised quickly, then glanced at the boys wondering what to do. Flitwick stood too looking between Tacita and the boys.

" Green, Hunter, Fletcher," he addressed the boys " why were you running after Miss Riddle?"

The boys looked uncomfortable.

"Erm, well sir she's a Slytherin and we didn't want her near the library when the first year Ravenclaws came," started the leader of the group who's name was Hunter "so we asked her nicely to leave, she wouldn't have that though, she used variety of curses and hexes on us so we were going to catch her and give her to a Prefect of professor."

" You should have just taken her name and reported to me," Flitwick glanced at Tacita who hadn't moved "Is what they say true Miss Riddle?"

Tacita looked him in the eyes and told him the story leaving out the part about the statue. Flitwick turned to the boys.

"Who is telling the truth?" He stared at them for a moment before saying " Hunter, I believe that you are not telling the truth."

" He's not," The boy name Craig Fletcher said, " he said that if we didn't chase off the sna… Slytherins then there would be no room for the real studiers." Flitwick looked up at the boys studying them.

"Lets continue this discussion in my office, boys, Miss Riddle." Tacita checked her watch it was 8:20.

"Sir, I can't," She stated " I was supposed to see Professor Snape at 8 and I'm already late."

" That is correct," Snape appeared out of nowhere and strode over to the group, he glared at the boys before turning his gaze to Flitwick "Filius, if you don't mind." He indicated to Tacita.

"Right of course." Flitwick led the boys off towards his office leaving Snape and Tacita standing in the hall. Snape turned and led Tacita down to the dungeons.

"Why is it that you always seem to manage to get in trouble?" Snape asked as he sat down at his desk, Tacita shrugged not looking at him "What happened?" Tacita looked him in the eye.

"Those boys were chasing me so I hid behind a statue, I left a little surprise behind it that they didn't like." Snape's mouth twitched.

"And how many snakes are now loose in the school?" Tacita looked down at her feet and fidgeted uncomfortably.

"6 sir," she looked at him " A hognose, 2 adders, 2 cobras and a black mamba." She looked very pleased with herself when she told him about the cobras and black mamba.

" And they're all venomous." Snape sighed. Tacita went back to examining her feet.

"Sorry sir."

"What did you tell them to do?" Snape didn't take his eyes off her, Tacita looked up at him

"I don't understand sir."

"The snakes, what did you tell them to do?" Tacita visibly flinched

"Erm, I don't…"

"Riddle, I know you are a parselmouth."

Tacita jumped _'How does he know? How long has he known?'_

" I told them not to bite anyone, just to scare the boys a lot," She whispered "How did you know sir?" Snape raised an eyebrow.

"You spoke to Harold did you not? I recognised it from…" He stopped and looked away.

"From?" Tacita asked, he glared at her making it clear he would not finish the sentence.

" I think it best you keep it to yourself Riddle, who else knows?"

"The Slytherins," Tacita answered instantly " but they said they wouldn't tell anyone else, not even their parents."

Snape nodded. Tacita looked around the office and noticed that Harold wasn't there.

"Sir, where is Harold?" She asked afraid that he had sent him away already.

"He is in my private rooms," Snape answered carefully, Tacita sighed in relief " but that is not what I wanted to discuss with you." Tacita stared at him, she knew what he wanted to discuss but decided to keep quiet.

" As I said before, I noticed you are not on good terms with Malfoy and Potter."

"Yes sir we had an argument."

"Why?"

Tacita glanced up at him, _'Why did I have a go at them?'_ The reasons appeared in her head _'because I was upset and I didn't want them to know, because I wasn't thinking clearly.'_ She couldn't tell Snape any o theses 'reasons', they just sounded like excuses to her and they would sound even more so to him. Tears fell down her cheeks as guilt overtook her.

Snape stared at her _'Why is it every conversation I have with her since her families death ends up like this?'_

"Miss Riddle…" Tacita cut him off.

"I...it's my f…fault…p…professor," she sobbed, " I… sh…shouted at them a…and t...told them t…to l…leave m...me a...alone."

Snape stood up and walked over to her, he put his arm around her.

"Miss Riddle, I'm sure that if you explained to them and apologised they would forgive you." Tacita tried to stop crying but found she couldn't. She decided she wanted to tell Snape everything.

"I w…was u…upset a…about d…dad a…and .D…Dan." She stuttered as more tears poured from her eyes " Why did they die? Why?"

She found herself leaning against him, crying into his chest like she had done the night she had heard about their deaths. Snape said nothing, he just waited for her to stop crying.

Eventually Tacita's tears subsided, she did not pull away. She had never really liked it when people hugged her so her 'Dad' had stopped trying to hug her after a while, she had always longed to be hugged when she was upset though but never said anything.

When it became apparent that Tacita was not going to move Snape pushed her away. He coughed awkwardly and looked down at the wet patch on his robes. Tacita stared at the floor, she was feeling drained. Snape removed his wand from his pocket and waved it causing the wet patch to dry instantly.

"You seem to be making a habit out of this Riddle." He stared at her intently, Tacita shifted uncomfortably.

"Sorry professor." She muttered glancing up at him.

" It is acceptable to grieve for your family Tacita." He said gently, he put a hand on her shoulder for a few seconds before sitting back down at his desk. Tacita looked him in the eye when he called her by her first name. She decided liked it when Snape used her first name, it made the conversation seem less formal

" Are you ready to speak to your friends now?" He said in his snake like voice. Tacita hesitated, her guilt returned she waited for tears to appear in her eyes but none came.

"I don't know sir," she told him truthfully " I don't know if I want them to know." Again she expected tears to fall but none came.

"It won't be any easier if you leave it Tacita," Snape didn't take his eyes off her as she stared at the floor again, she knew he was right " do you want your friends back or don't you?" he asked impatiently.

Tacita looked back at him, his black eyes remained blank and his voice sounded irritated but Tacita was sure he wasn't.

"I do want Draco and Harry to be my friends again but they probably hate me at the moment."

"I wouldn't be so sure," he smiled slightly " If I know Potter he would have the whole house of Gryffindor against you if he hated you, just like he has with Mr Malfoy." Tacita looked up at this.

"And as for Mr Malfoy, he hasn't been with his …friends Mr Crabbe and Mr Goyle." He seemed to have trouble called Crabbe and Goyle Draco's friends.

"Really?" Tacita asked uncertainly.

"Yes Miss Riddle." Snape noticed the look of disappointment that he had gone back to calling her by her last name before she hid it.

Snape checked the time, it was 9:00 " It is time you returned to the common room Riddle." Tacita nodded and got up to leave. She opened the door and just before she left turned back to Snape

"Thank you professor." She left quickly before Snape could reply.


	19. Chapter 18 Apologies

**Chapter 18 – Apologies **

Tacita entered the common room and looked around for Draco, she had decided to speak to him right away so she wouldn't chicken out. Faith and Jason were sitting together on a table with Draco. Draco looked terrible, he wasn't talking to anyone and was examining his hands.

Tacita felt a stab of guilt as she walked over to them.

"Err hi Draco, Faith, Jason." She said, they looked up at her astonished that she was talking to them.

" Hey Tacita," Jason indicated to the empty seat next to Draco " Wanna sit with us?" Tacita smiled slightly and sat down.

"Hi." Faith acknowledged Tacita looking up form an essay she was doing for a second. Draco was looking in the opposite direction.

"Erm Draco," Tacita started, he turned to look at her

"I'msorryforshoutingatyou." She mumbled.

"What?" Draco asked confused, Jason laughed slightly. Faith looked up at Tacita and stared at her.

"You've got to speak clearly Tacita or he won't be able to understand you." Faith stated knowingly

" You mean you actually understood that!" Jason gasped looking at Faith in astonishment.

"Of course," Faith smiled " My younger brother speaks like that all the time, lets go to the library Jason." She gave him a pointed look and he nodded.

" See you round Tacita, Draco." Draco grunted in reply, he was staring at Tacita.

" Bye." Tacita replied quietly.

"So what did you say?" Draco asked warily.

"Erm I said I was sorry," Tacita looked at her hands "for shouting at you and stuff."

"Oh," Draco looked away again " I'm sorry too I guess, I shouldn't have pressed you on something you didn't want to tell me."

" Don't worry it's just you know when Snape came and told me to come with him?"

"Yeah."

"He took me to Dumbledore's office and I found out that…" Tacita broke of tears welling up in her eyes.

"You don't have to tell me." Draco put an arm around her and this time she let him.

"My Dad and my brother," Tacita whispered, swallowing the tears "they're dead."

"Dead, how?" Draco asked

"Apparently they were murdered." Tacita pulled away from Draco and examined her hands once more, now that she had said It, it was real.

" I'm sorry." Draco said

"I think I'm going to bed now Draco, see you in the morning."

The next morning Tacita woke to find Faith poking her.

"Hey Tacita wake up we've got Transfiguration in 15 minutes."

"What!" Tacita jumped up and got dressed as quickly as possible.

When She was ready her and Faith left the common room together.

"Thanks for waking me Faith." Tacita panted as they ran to their class.

" No problem, I thought you were up already but I forgot my Transfiguration book when I went back for it and saw you…." She shrugged

" Lucky for me you forgot it then."

"Yeah."

Faith and Tacita rounded the corner of the transfiguration corridor just as the last few people entered so they mingled in with the last few people and pretended they had been there all along.

Transfiguration was uneventful as were all of Tacita's morning lessons. At lunch Tacita was watching Harry she wanted to apologise but didn't want to do it in front of all the other Gryffindor's, and she especially didn't want them to know about her family.

Tacita sighed at least she had told Draco. She glanced at Snape who was busy glaring at Quirrel she wondered why. As she looked back at Harry she saw that he was leaving with Ron and Hermione.

"I'll see you later Draco." She said not looking away from Harry.

"Where are you…." He broke off, following her gaze, his eyes narrowed " All right see you in Potions."

Tacita got up and followed the trio. When the headed up the stairs she ran up behind them.

"Hey Harry." She called, he turned around and smiled.

"Hi Tacita, how are you?"

"I'm alive, I was wondering if I could talk to you." She hoped that Ron and Hermione would get the hint and leave for a few minutes, Its was not that she didn't like them she just didn't want to talk to them.

Ron was glaring at her, he despised Slytherins but considering the amount Draco teased the Weasley's he almost had a right to. Hermione , in Tacita's opinion, was too smug about the amount of books she had read and all the spells she could do.

"Sure," Harry turned to Ron and Hermione " You go ahead I'll catch you up."

"And leave you with the snake I don't think so Harry, She could hex you!" Ron stated.

"Ron, she won't hex me." Harry turned to Ron. Tacita sighed

" Look Ron…"

"Don't call me that Riddle!" Ron Snapped

" Very well Weasley," She said coolly " I am not going to Hex Harry, He's my friend and unless he goes crazy and attacks me I will not hex him."

Ron glared at her but Tacita held his gaze keeping her expression blank.

"Is there anything else you would like to say?" She asked in a friendly voice, Ron turned red. Hermione stifled a giggle

"Come on Ron." She said trying not to laugh, she dragged him away leaving Harry and Tacita standing at the top of the staircase.

Harry was looking between Tacita and the place where Ron was "How did you do that?" He asked, Tacita turned to him and grinned

"I have no idea what your talking about." Tacita smirked, Harry shook his head

"Whatever, what did you want to talk about?"

"Yesterday, I wanted to apologise." Tacita fiddled with the strap of her bag.

"You don't have to apologise for that." Harry said awkwardly "You were upset about something."

"Yeah, I found out my family died" She admitted. Harry put his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, if you want to talk about it or anything…" He fidgeted " I mean my parents are dead too."

"Thanks Harry." She smiled.

"I have to go get my Potions essay, do you wanna come." Tacita grinned and nodded.

Harry and Tacita climbed the stairs up to the 7th floor until Harry stopped by a portrait of a fat lady.

"Password?" The fat lady asked.

"Erm this is where the Gryffindor Common room is." Harry told her.

"Do you want me to wait on the 6th floor so I don't know the password?" Tacita asked thinking he wouldn't want her to know the password.

"No it's fine, Red Fire," The portrait opened, Harry climbed through " Come on."

Ron and Hermione were already in their, They looked up as Harry entered. When Tacita followed nervously, Ron's eyes narrowed

"What's she doing here?" He asked, He had a lot of parchment in front of him and was holding a quill.

" She's here because I invited her Ron." Harry informed him.

"Hi Harry, Tacita." Hermione greeted them.

" Hi Hermione." Tacita replied pointedly ignoring Ron.

"Fine," Ron glared at Tacita one more time before turning back to Harry "have you got any idea what the properties of Asphodel are Harry? Hermione won't tell me."

" Don't ask me Ron I'm not helping you, last time I did you just copied my essay."

"I bet this is 7th year work that bloody git just wants us to fail," Ron glanced at Tacita "Of course he gives the Slytherins the answers after class I bet."

Tacita stiffened but ignored him. Hermione turned to Ron

"Oh Ron I'm sure Professor Snape Doesn't do that."

"No he doesn't and I would know although if you are having so much trouble with it perhaps you should go ask him." Tacita informed him, Ron looked disgusted.

"And spend more time than I have to with that git I don't think so he probably wouldn't help a Gryffindor anyway."

"Actually as a teacher he couldn't say no if you asked him for help if he did you could tell Dumbledore." Hermione told Ron. Ron's face brightened.

"Really now, you mean if he said no I could get him sacked?"

"He wouldn't be sacked for that Weasley." Tacita told him, she was slightly annoyed by his obsessive blaming Snape for everything.

" Oh well then there's no way I'm gonna go spend any extra time with the slimy git."

"Do not insult my head of house anymore." Tacita said dangerously. Ron glared at her.

"And what you gonna so about it?" Ron taunted. Tacita wiped out her wand.

"Not much." She told him as she pointed it at his neck. Ron glared at her

"Fine,fine." He grumbled

"Thank you." Tacita smiled.

"Your really scary, you know that." Harry told her, Tacita laughed

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Hey Tacita, your good at Potions, could you help me out with this essay?"

"Sure."

Tacita found it strange that Harry and Ron had left their essay to the last minute but said nothing, after Ron saw Harry had finished in 5 minutes with Tacita's help he apologised and asked Tacita for help, which she gave but she didn't give him as much help. The four went to Potions after lunch together.


	20. Chapter 19 Preparing For Christmas

**Chapter 19 – Preparing For Christmas**

"Miss Riddle see me after class." Tacita looked up from her potion, Snape was glaring at her with a essay in his hand. She glanced at it but he put it face down on his desk.

At the end of class she approached Snape's desk . Once everyone had left Snape handed her two essays. Tacita looked at thme and saw that they were Harry's and Ron's

"Erm sir…."

"Why is it Miss Riddle that these essays which have Potter and Weasley's names on are written in a way to suggest that you did them?" Snape asked dangerously. Tacita realised what he meant as she read through them.

"I didn't do their essays if that's what you mean sir," she told him looking him in the eye " I did help them though."

Snape raised an eyebrow "You helped them?"

"Yes sir."

" Giving them the answers is not helping Miss Riddle."

" I didn't sir, I just told them what page to look on and helped out with their spelling." Snape sighed.

"Very well you may go."

Tacita ran to her last lesson it was Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was very boring, Tacita found herself wondering how Quirrel had got a job teaching with a stutter like that.

In the common room that night Tacita noticed a piece of parchment on the notice board. It was a list of students who wished to remain at Hogwarts for Christmas. It was empty, She swallowed a lump in her throat as he thought of how she had no where to go for Christmas and wrote her name on it.

Over the next few days Tacita kept an eye on the parchment to see if anyone else wrote their name on it, no one did.

The weekend before the end of term Snape entered the common room. He took down the parchment and glanced at it, when he read the only name on it he turned his gaze on Tacita who was sitting with her friends Jason, Faith and Draco. She was watching him as they chatted excitedly about going home for the Christmas holidays.

Snape left his robes billowing behind him. Tacita watched him go and sighed. "I'm going for a walk." She informed her friends.

"You want me to come with you or are you going to see Potter?" Draco asked spitting the name Potter with hatred.

"I'm going to go ask Harry if he's staying over Christmas, I hope he is or I'll be a complete loner." She laughed.

"Hey, I'm sorry about not being able to stay, I would, but my father wants me at home." Draco told her.

"Yeah same, sorry Tacita." Jason smiled.

"I'm not going to apologise because I really want to go home for Christmas but I'll write ok." Faith gave her a thumbs up which Tacita returned as she laughed.

"Sure Faith, you all better write," She mock threatened "see you later."

Tacita left the common room with a smile. As she walked down the corridor her face fell and she slowed down. Her only hope would be that Harry and Hermione where staying for Christmas. If Ron was staying she supposed she could bear it.

Ron had been nicer to her lately but still insisted on calling her by her last name. She walked up the stairs to the 7th floor. As she approached the fat lady it opened and Professor McGonagall walked out carrying a similar piece of parchment that was in the Slytherin common room.

McGonagall stopped when she saw Tacita. Her eyes narrowed

"What would you be doing here Miss Riddle?"

"I was just going to see Harry Professor." Tacita replied nervously,

"Oh very well." She stood aside and held the portrait door open for her. Tacita approached and looked around the common room. Harry spotted her and came over, Ron followed closely.

"Hi Tacita." He said

"Hi Harry, Hi Weasley, do you two and Hermione want to go for a walk?"

" I will," Harry grinned " I'll go ask Herminie how bout you Ron?"

"Sure I'll come." As the two boys went off to ask Hermione, Tacita noticed that McGonagall was still there.

"Erm thanks Professor." Tacita smiled slightly, McGonagall pursed her lips and nodded, before leaving.

The boys returned followed by Hermione. They strolled to a classroom on the 6th floor and sat down the chat.

"So anyone staying for Christmas?" Tacita asked casually.

"Yeah I'm staying, so's Ron, Hermione isn't though." Harry replied.

"Great we could hang out, I'm the only Slytherin staying by the looks of it."

" Blimey you'll have your entire common room to yourself, you can do what you want!" Ron exclaimed

"That must be terrible, being all alone in the dungeons." Hermione shuddered. Tacita laughed at their reactions.

"You could always come hang out in out common room." Harry offered " The passwords still Red Fire, it will change after Christmas."

"Thanks Harry I'll probably do that." Tacita grinned. Ron said nothing, he had accepted that he couldn't push Tacita away even if he didn't like it. The four friends chatted about various things until it was time for dinner.

Tacita sat down with Draco, Faith and Jason feeling very happy. She would not be a loner this Christmas, which was good because she felt that if she was alone too much she might dwell on her families deaths.

"So Potter staying is he?" Jason asked, as Tacita put lots of food on her plate.

"Yep." Tacita replied. Faith was watching her eat.

"Your eating a lot today." She stated, Tacita paused with her fork inches away from her mouth.

"I'm hungry today." She told her. Faith raised her eyebrows.

"And you haven't been hungry for a week?"

"Yeah," Tacita told her ,she was in a good mood so she decided to explain " If I eat a big meal I won't feel hungry for a while if I eat small amounts."

Draco, Faith and Jason stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. "That is awesome!" Jason stated.

"That explains your eating habits I suppose," Faith looked thoughtful "you're a bit like a snake aren't you."

"I never really thought of it that way but yeah, I guess I am." Tacita returned to eating occasionally putting in a comment or two as her friends chatted.

Christmas break came all to soon for Tacita. She was standing in the common room with her Slytherin friends.

"See you after the holidays Tacita." Jason waved and gave a thumbs up which Tacita returned. Faith absently said bye and promised to write. Draco surprised her with a hug.

" See you Tacita," He said smiling "I'll miss you." Tacita was stilled shocked form the hug when she replied.

"I'll miss you to Draco, write to me ok." He nodded and left.

Some of the other Slytherins said goodbye to her which she acknowledged with a wave of a bye. Until Tacita was in the common room with just a few Slytherins.

Snape entered the common room

"Hurry up, unless you wish to stay here for Christmas." He shouted so everyone could hear. Tacita noticed the way he said Christmas with disdain and wondered why.

The Slytherins eventually all left the common room, Snape remained in the common room with her. He cleared his throat.

" Miss Riddle as you are to remain here for the Christmas Holidays I have a few rules that must be abided by." Tacita looked up at him.

"Yes sir."

" Over the holidays the curfew is half eleven, if I discover you are not in the common room by then the consequences will be dire, do you understand?" Tacita nodded,

"Yes sir" She stated remembering he preferred it when she spoke.

" The password for the holidays is Stone Entrance, no doubt you will want to bring Potter here," He sneered " You may bring any of your friends here and, or tell them the password, it will be changed at the start of term, if you have any unwelcome visitors come and see me and the password will be changed."

"Yes Sir, thank you sir."

Snape nodded " The house elves will be bringing a tree in late today but if you wish you may decorate further as long as the decorations are down before term starts. "

"Yes sir." Tacita smiled at the idea of decorating the dungeon.

" You may send owl post, if you wish to buy presents I am sure that the yearly catalogues will be arriving tomorrow morning."

" Yes sir." She was glad that he had mentioned this, she had forgotten that she would need to find a way to buy presents for all her friends. She looked down at her shoes when she remembered that she no longer needed to buy presents for her family.

Snape frowned at her reaction 'What did I say to make her react like that?' He wondered. He shook his head and continued with the rules. " Other than that the school rules still apply, so don't let me catch you using magic, do you understand?"

Tacita looked up at him surprised, he had just given her unofficial permission to use magic. As long as he didn't see her di it. She nodded

"Yes sir I do." Snape replied with a smirk, seeing that she had understood what he was really saying.

" Very well Miss Riddle, I believe that that the Gryffindor's will be leaving their common room soon so if you wish to say goodbye to Miss Granger I suggest you leave now." Tacita nodded

"Yes sir, thank you sir." With that she ran off.

As Tacita approached the portrait of the fat lady she say Harry, Ron and Hermione Standing near it, she approached them and was about to call out when she caught their conversation.

" ….Nicholas Flammel." Hermioine whispered.

"Aw come on Hermione we've looked at every book in the library." Ron wined

"Not in the restricted section."

"How are we going to get in there?" Harry asked

"I don't know you'll have to figure something out yourselves."

"I bet Tacita could figure it out." Harry muttered

" Blimey Harry, we can't include her, if she knew we knew Snape was going to steal the whatever that dog is guarding she'd go tell him!" Ron stated

" Well I guess." Harry agreed, Tacita swallowed the lump in her throat at that but was curios as to what the were talking about, and what was this about Snape stealing something a dog was guarding. She walked up behind Hermione.

"Hi." She smiled as if nothing was wrong. They jumped.

"Tacita what are you doing here?" Harry asked

"I just came to say bye to Hermione." Tacita smiled.

" Oh, Bye Tacita." Herminie smiled slightly.

"Write to me Ok." Tacita said.

" Alright." Ron and Harry said goodbye to Hermione and she followed the other Gryffindors.

" Hey Snape said you could come to the Slytherin common room the passwords Stone Entrance."

" That's great Tacita."

"Yeah Riddle we could have the whole common room to ourselves.

"Come on I'll show you where it is." Tacita motioned for them to follow her.


	21. Chapter 20 Letters

**Chapter 20 – Letters**

The next couple of days where uneventful for Tacita. The tables in the Great Hall had been replaced by one table so a meal times Tacita sat with Harry and Ron. She had received two catalogues, the first day of the holidays, just as Snape said she would.

An owl landed on Tacita's plate one morning destroying her breakfast, she had got out of the habit of looking. She recognised the eagle owl as Draco's and eagerly took the letter from it's leg.

Tacita

I know I've only been away two days and I'm already writing to you, but I'm so bored. All my Mother wants me to do is go shopping with her, I think if this keeps on going I'm going to have to run away to Hogwarts. Has anything interesting happened a Hogwarts? I wish I was there.

I never realised before I came to Hogwarts how boring the food at home is. But then again Hogwarts food is the best.. Are you looking forward to Christmas? I know I am.

I've got you a brilliant present I wish I was going to be there to see you open it, I'll send it on Christmas day. How is having the common room all to yourself? I think it would be really cool. Anyway, I've got to go now. Hope to see you Soon

Draco

Tacita smiled at the letter, when she looked up she saw that the owl was gone. Harry was watching her.

"That from Malfoy?" Harry asked, indicating to the letter.

"Yeah, I'm going to go reply I'll see you later." Tacita got up and left.

Tacita went down to the dungeon to write her letter.

Draco

It was great to hear from you. Not much is going on at Hogwarts, I mean how much can happen in Hogwarts in 2 days ? That's a rhetorical question of course. What's this about Hogwarts food being the best . No way I'm sure there's better food out there. You have a present for me I will have to get you a present I got some catalogues today .

Your owl destroyed my breakfast , there I was minding my own business when an owl lands on my plate. Don't worry though, I forgive you. Having the common room to myself is pretty cool, Snape said I could let people from other houses come here he even changed the password for the holidays.

I'm kind of looking forward to Christmas, Harry, Ron and I are going to have a party in the common room. I wish you, Faith and Jason were here. Thanks for writing.

Tacita

Tacita re-read the letter then browsed through her catalogues. She found in the instructions that if she thought about something specific it flipped to the page number.

The catalogues' were extremely thick, it was about 5 times the thickness of an Argos catalogue. But they were surprisingly light, Tacita guessed a feather light charm had been placed on them.

Tacita decided to go up to the owlery now. As she entered she had to stop and catch her breath, The walk from the dungeons to the owlery was an exhausting one. Tacita was surprised to find Snape there. He had just finished securing a piece of paper to as owl.

As the owl flew of he noticed her. "Miss Riddle." He greeted.

"Hello sir." Tacita smiled as she looked for Shadow. Spotting him she called him down. "Was that your owl sir?" She asked suddenly as Snape did not appear to be leaving she decided to try to make conversation.

"No, I do not own an owl," Snape told her. "I have seen that owl around here often." He indicated to Shadow

"This is Shadow he's my owl." Tacita informed him as she tied the letter to his leg.

"Indeed." Tacita watched as Shadow flew off.

"I must return to my office, I have work to do." Snape stated suddenly. And went to leave Tacita followed him, He glanced at her questionably .

" I'm going back to the common room ." She explained, He nodded and slowed his pace.

" Sir," Tacita said, Snape glanced at her to show he was listening "I was in the library and I read in a Potions book that you couldn't mix Dragon Talons and Phoenix Tears if you have used Boomslang Skin in the Potion, and I was wondering how Boomslang skin affected it." Snape stopped.

"I don't know why you are reading such a high level book Miss Riddle, it would take me awhile to explain as this is fourth year potions."

"Will you explain please sir?" Tacita asked hopefully. Snape nodded, come to my office and I will explain.

Tacita followed Snape to his office and he explained to her fourth year potions, It was fascinating, when Tacita read the books in the Library she sometime struggled to understand what they were talking about but with a teacher it was much easier.

Snape was impressed he had never had a student that had the initiative to actually read more than the required books of his subject. He found it was refreshing to have a student actually interested in potions.

Snape checked the time when Tacita stifled a yawn It was half one in the morning. They had talked about potions all day stopping briefly for lunch and dinner in his office. "Perhaps it is time to stop for the day." Snape stated. Tacita opened her mouth to protest but when only another yawn came out agreed. Snape smirked at this.

"As it is past curfew I will walk you back to your common room."

"Yes sir." Tacita looked at her watch and gasped.

"Stone Entrance." Snape said as the neared the common room .

"Thank you sir." Tacita smiled. Snape nodded.

"Go to bed Tacita." Tacita was so tired she did not notice the use of her first name.

"Yes sir Good night." She enter the common room and headed to her dormitory.

"Good night Tacita." Snape murmured, before strolling off.

Tacita woke late the next morning. When she checked the time she was astonished to find that it was ten. Tacita remembered the last night and smiled she wanted to learn some more about potions. She decided not to bother Snape.

She hadn't seen Harry since breakfast yesterday, he was probably wondering where she was. She got dressed quickly and went to the Gryffindor tower. As she approached the Fat Lady.

She muttered the password and entered as the portrait swung open.

Tacita looked around the common room but couldn't see Harry or Ron. A Gryffindor 7th year looked up at her

" Hey how'd you get out password?" He asked glaring at her.

"What do you want?" Asked another Gryffindor. Most of the Gryffindors glared at her.

"Erm I was wondering if I could find Harry and Ron here but as I can see…." She broke off and shrugged. A red haired boy with glasses and a prefect badge spoke up.

"My brother is in the Library with Harry," he told her. " It's good my brother is taking his studies seriously."

"Err, Ok, thanks, I'll just … go the Library then." Tacita backed out of the Gryffindor common room.

Tacita took a deep breath she didn't like talking to Gryffindors that weren't Harry, Ron and Hermione. They made it obvious they didn't like her, they were worse than Ron!

As Tacita entered the Library she didn't spot her friends anywhere. She was about to leave when she heard a muffled whisper. She followed the sound and found Harry and Ron.

"One of these books has got to have something to do with Nicholas Flammel." Rom wined.

"I still think that this would be faster if we got Tacita in on it." Tacita hid behind the bookshelves and listened in.

"But if the Slytherin knows, Snape will know we're on to him."

" I bet if we asked her not to tell him…"

"She's always defending Snape, she could even be in on it."

"Somehow I doubt that Ron." Harry said exasperated.

Tacita sighed they obviously didn't want to include her in this little thing. Tacita returned to the dungeons. She wondered who Nicholas Flammel was. She decided that as it was now lunch time to go and get some lunch maybe she could catch Harry there and talk to him.

As she entered the great hall she noticed that many of the Gryffindors were already there but Harry and Ron were not, she sighed and sat down. As she was pouring some pumpkin juice Harry and Ron entered.

"Harry, Ron," Tacita called. Harry grinned and sat next to her while Ron glared at her "I was looking for you."

"Were you?" Harry said.

"Yeah, you weren't in the common room and I didn't see you in the library where were you?" Tacita noticed that Ron looked triumphant when she said she didn't see them in the library and had to stifle a giggle.

"Well we were in the library, Riddle."

"Oh, I didn't see you," she smiled at Ron "you know you can call me Tacita."

"Lets go to your common room after lunch, then we can hang out." Tacita nodded at Harry. When they got the common room they played wizard chess, Harry had never played chess before so lost to both Tacita and Ron. Ron was amazing he beat the both.

As the days passed Tacita was getting more and more curious as to who this Nicholas Flammel was. She had taken to spying on Harry and Ron and was getting quite good at it.

At breakfast she was pleased to get 3 owls. She open the letters and read them.

Hey Tacita

It's nearly Christmas, I'm really excited. Hope your having a good time hanging out with Potter. No offense, but rather you than me. I wish I was there a Hogwarts with you but I can't say I'm looking foreword to term starting again. All that homework that I'll get *shudder*.

How is it having the common room all to yourself? I bet it's the greatest thing ever! See you when term starts.

Jason

Tacita

Is that your owl? He is so awesome, I don't know why but when my father saw him he almost had a heart attack! It was hilarious, you should've been there.

I wish I could've been there to see my owl land on your breakfast it sounds funny. I bet you've got Potter in the common room, that's fine I guess just tell the house elves to give it an extra cleaning before I return Ok.

I must go now See you when school starts.

Draco

Tacita

First letter I've written to you. Sorry it took me a while. Not much has happened lately, I've just been enjoying my Christmas Holiday. It will be good to see you again. My little brothers being a pain as always. Hope your enjoying your Christmas.

Faith

P.s Lorna says Hi

Tacita put her letters in her pocket and said goodbye to Harry. She went down to the dungeon and wrote each of her Slytherin friends a reply.

When she was done she went up to the owlery. She sent Shadow with Draco's letter and picked out school owls for the rest. Tacita then walked to the library to meet Harry and Ron.


	22. Chapter 21 Christmas Morning

**Chapter 21- Christmas Morning**

On Christmas day Tacita woke early. When she realised what day it was she grinned and got dressed quickly. As she entered the common room the first thing she saw were presents under the tall Christmas tree.

Tacita checked the time it was seven, she returned to her dormitory and put Harry and Ron's presents under the tree and waited for them. At half seven the entrance opened to reveal two boys with armfuls of presents.

"Tacita, Merry Christmas!" Harry Said, he was grinning "Look I've got presents!"

"Yeah you do, come on lets open them." Ron shouted and ran over to the Christmas tree. Tacita grinned and followed him.

Tacita got a huge tub of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans from Hermione, a chocolate frog from Ron and a little green notebook from harry, it had a silver snake on it and had Tacita Riddle Written on it in silver. "Thanks, Harry, thanks Ron!" Tacita exclaimed. She then opened the presents from her Slytherin Friends.

From Draco, Tacita got a small model of a snake, it hissed and moved like a real snake, although Tacita found that she couldn't understand it so she guessed it was an imitation hiss. Faith and Jason both got her a new set of vials between them. Tacita smiled at the thought of having extra vials, Now she would be able to experiment with Potions.

Harry was very pleased with the presents he got. He was very pleased about the jumper he got from Mrs Weasley. Harry opened his last present, when he read out the tag it said

Your Father left this in my possession before he died.

It is time it was returned to you.

Use it Well.

A Very Merry Christmas to you.

"Careful Harry, It could be hexed." Tacita told him, when he pulled out the cloak.

"Who would wanna hex Harry, Put it on Harry," Ron said excitedly. Harry did, caused Tacita to glare at Ron, Ron gasped "That's an invisibility cloak that is!"

"Wow Harry! That's really cool!" Tacita exclaimed, forgetting her earlier suspicions.

"My bodies gone!" Harry shouted as he looked down at himself "Wow!"

"What about that present?" Ron asked pointing to the parcel wrapped in brown wrapping paper underneath the tree. Tacita grabbed it, it was addressed to her.

Miss Riddle

Merry Christmas

S.S

Tacita grinned, she was glad she didn't read it out loud, She knew her friends views on Snape. She opened it quickly. It was a Potions book it was titled An Advanced Guide to Potions and Potion Adaptations. It was a very thick book, as Tacita moved the paper away a small bottle fell out. She glanced at it Non-Smudging ink was written on the label in spidery writing.

Tacita followed Harry and Ron to the Great Hall. Everyone else was already there. Even teachers were sitting with the students on Christmas day. As she entered with Harry and Ron she noticed Snape look up and glare at Harry and Ron.

Everyone else were seated and the only seats left were next to Snape. Harry and Ron saw this and stopped, Ron started muttering something but Tacita ignored him and went and sat down next to Snape.

Harry sat down next to Tacita and Ron reluctantly followed . "Hello, Professor, Merry Christmas." Tacita said cheerfully. Snape was glaring at Harry and Ron.

"Miss Riddle." Snape acknowledged. He glanced at her before returning to his breakfast.

Tacita put a piece of toast on her plate and nibbled at it. When she finished she waited for Harry and Ron. "Aren' you gonna eat anyfin else?" Ron said with his mouth full.

"Er, no I'm not that hungry." Tacita told him, she was taken aback by his disgusting manners. As she glanced at Snape she saw that she wasn't the only one.

Snape left quickly after that, Tacita, Harry and Ron followed him. Dumbledore watched Tacita go, his eyes narrowed before excusing himself.

" I'm gonna go hang out in the Gryffindor common room." Ron stated

"OK I'll come, you coming Tacita?" Harry asked.

"I'll come in a minute I just have to do something quick."

"OK see you later then." Harry waved before following Ron.

Tacita went down to the dungeons and retrieved a small parcel from her dormitory. She then walked the short distance to Snape's office. As she was about to knock she paused, she could hear voices from inside.

"Severus, I want to know…" Tacita thought she recognised the voice.

"I know what you want to know Albus, I have nothing to report…" She heard Snape explode, Dumbledore? Tacita wondered what Dumbledore wanted Snape to report. Why had Snape reacted like that?

"But she might be…"

"I know what you think Albus and you are wrong, Miss Riddle is not.,."

"But she might be Severus."

Tacita frowned, they were talking about her. Why? What had she done? What did Dumbledore think she might be? "I'll be leaving now Severus, please report to me…" Tacita stopped listening, as she heard footsteps coming toward the door she dashed round the corner.

Tacita walked back towards the office at a normal pace. Dumbledore turned the corner just as she was.

"Hello Professor, I didn't know you were down here." Tacita said smiling, she thought it would be better if he had no idea she had heard, maybe she would ask Snape about it later.

"Miss Riddle, I was just speaking to Professor Snape, what brings you here." Dumbledore gazed at her suspiciously, He was trying to conceal it but Tacita noticed.

"I was just going to see Professor Snape." Tacita told him. At that moment Snape put his head round the door.

"Albus, why are you…" He started but then spotted Tacita.

"Miss Riddle, what are you doing here, I would of thought that you would be with Potter and Weasley." He spat the names Potter and Weasley but Tacita pretended not to notice.

Snape noticed Dumbledore stiffen when he mention Potter and Weasley 'Interesting,' he thought 'perhaps their friendship with Miss Riddle is why he is so obsessed with her being like her father.'

" Erm, yes sir I just, erm, came to give you your present sir." Tacita said quickly now embarrassed, she held out the box for him to take. Dumbledore coughed and she glanced at him. Snape raised an eyebrow.

After a few moments Snape took the present. He coughed,

"Perhaps you should return to you friends now Miss Riddle." He said softly. Tacita hesitated, she wanted to thank him for the present he gave her but sensed that now was not a good time.

"Yes sir." She answered finally and quickly turned and sped off.

Snape looked down at the present in his hands, it was wrapped in green and silver paper, his Slytherins didn't normally give him present, but then again he didn't normally give his Slytherins presents.

"Well, I suppose her father wouldn't have done that." Snape heard Dumbledore say reluctantly. Snape grunted in reply. "A Merry Christmas to you Severus." With that Dumbledore strode off. Snape returned to his office. He placed the present on his desk and sat down.

After staring at it for a few minutes he unwrapped it carefully. Inside was a small stone that could fit in is hand. There was a note that said if he held it in his hand and held it over a liquid or foodthe stone would go hot if it was poisoned. Snape examined the stone, he knew that this would come in useful, he decided to thank her when he could get her alone.


End file.
